THUNDER BAY – COVID-19 Update – The Thunder Bay District Health Unit says there are 172 new lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the district. There are now 310 active lab-confirmed cases.
There are 46 patients in hospital in the district and seven of those patients are in the Intensive Care Unit.
Do not report positive COVID tests to TBDHU at this time
The Thunder Bay District Health Unit says, “Although we appreciate the motivation behind this, with the current high level of spread, public health units do not have the capacity to perform contact tracing among the general population. Instead, efforts are being focused on minimizing harms to those populations who are most vulnerable (i.e. long-term care facilities), as well as vaccination”.
“Lab-confirmed PCR tests are sent directly to health units by the facility. If someone in your household tests positive on a Rapid Antigen Test, or if someone in your home has symptoms, please isolate and follow the instructions at Ontario.ca/exposed.”
Ontario Opens Up
With key public health and health care indicators starting to show signs of improvement, Ontario will cautiously and gradually ease public health measures. Effective January 31, 2022 at 12:01 a.m. Ontario eased restrictions, while maintaining protective measures, including but not limited to:
- Increasing social gathering limits to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors.
- Increasing or maintaining capacity limits at 50 per cent in indoor public settings, including but not limited to:
- restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments without dance facilities
- retailers (including grocery stores and pharmacies)
- shopping malls
- non-spectator areas of sports and recreational fitness facilities, including gyms
- cinemas
- meeting and event spaces
- recreational amenities and amusement parks, including water parks
- museums, galleries, aquariums, zoos and similar attractions
- casinos, bingo halls and other gaming establishments
- religious services, rites, or ceremonies.
- Allowing spectator areas of facilities such as sporting events, concert venues and theatres to operate at 50 per cent seated capacity or 500 people, whichever is less.