CORNWALL, Ontario – The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) region has recorded 63 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the month of September. This is the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in a single month since the start of the pandemic.
Of those confirmed cases, 55 are currently active, including one outbreak in a long term care facility in Limoges.
“We are in a critical phase. Until we get a vaccine we will be going up and down, up and down, and we will be taking measures to respond appropriately to the numbers,” said Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, Medical Officer of Health for the EOHU. “There is a discussion for what will be necessary in terms of going back and shutting things down,” he went on to say. “To me this is a critical time. We are looking at the first second week of October for the fallout of Labour Day weekend.”
Dr. Roumeliotis explained that the rate of transmission in the EOHU area is 1.3, which means that for every person who contracts COVID, it is spread to another 1.3 people.
“This is a weird virus,” Dr. Roumeliotis said in response to a question about the long term affects of COVID-19. “It not only affects the respiratory system, but it can also cause blood clots.”
Dr. Roumeliotis said that most of the new COVID-19 cases are in people under the age of 40.
The breakdown of current active COVID-19 cases across the EOHU region is as follows: two in South Dundas, two in South Stormont, three in Cornwall, 12 in South Glengarry, two in North Glengarry, one in Hawkesbury, six in The Nation, two in Alfred-Plantagenet, 15 in Clarence-Rockland, one in Casselman, and eight in Russell.
