COVID-19: Two more people in Hamilton have died as a result of the virus

Hamilton is reporting two more COVID-19-related deaths on Friday (Aug. 6), bringing the local death toll to 404.

After several weeks without a single new COVID-related death reported in the community, Hamilton’s toll climbed by three this past week.

Also on Friday, the City reports that there are 16 newly confirmed cases of the virus in the community, with 127 active cases in total at the moment. The seven-day average for new cases in Hamilton is 16.

Two new outbreaks have been declared at two supportive housing organizations in Hamilton as of Thursday (Aug. 5) bringing the total number of active outbreaks here to nine. A case has been confirmed at St. Leonard’s Society of Hamilton and another at Women’s Services – Mary’s Place.

In an indication that Hamilton could see the spread of the virus slow, the city’s current reproductive number has finally dipped below 1 to .97 (down from 1.26 earlier this week).

This number indicates the average number of secondary infections generated by an individual infected with COVID-19. A number above one indicates that the virus continues to spread in the community, while a number below one indicates that the spread has been brought under control.

Meanwhile, Ontario is reporting 340 new COVID-19 cases and 18 deaths from the virus on Friday, including several deaths that occurred more than six weeks ago.

The province says 16 of the deaths, including one of a person under the age of 19, were reported for the first time on Friday due to data cleaning work.

There were 110 patients in intensive care with COVID-related critical illness and 76 people on ventilators.

According to Public Health Ontario, from the end of June to the end of July, unvaccinated people were eight times more likely to become infected with COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people.

The province says it administered 53,975 COVID-19 vaccine doses since the last daily update for a total of more than 19.7 million shots.

In Hamilton, as of Friday 741,325 vaccine doses had been administered to date. According to data on the City of Hamilton website, 77.6 per cent of adults 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose and 68.2 per cent have been fully vaccinated.