By Sue Tiffin
Two Haliburton County residents have died of COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
In a June 15 update of COVID-19 activity in the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge district health unit region, a death in Highlands East and one death in Minden Hills was reported, according to a comparison from last week’s data.
One of the two deaths involved a person in their 70s, the other a person older than 80.
“Typically, these are all the details the HKPR District Health Unit will provide about individuals who have died of COVID-19,” said Bill Eekhof, communication officer with the HKPR district health unit. To date, two of the local COVID-19 deaths have been Dysart et al residents, two fatalities were from Highlands East and one COVID-19-related death involved a person from Minden Hills.
In total, there have been five COVID-19-related deaths in Haliburton since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, all involving residents over the age of 70.
Four deaths have occurred in 2022, since the Omicron variant wave, and the first occurred in 2021.
On April 13, it was reported a resident in their 70s died, and on May 9, the health unit reported the death of a resident 80 or older.
The health unit has moved to reporting COVID-19 information on a weekly basis, as has the province.
“This is due to decreased COVID-19 activity in the region, and less of a need to report as often,” Eekhof said. “However, if COVID-19 activity starts to increase again, the health unit will increase its frequency of reporting as well.”
The health unit notes that data regarding COVID-19 lab confirmed cases is not accurate, as PCR testing is still greatly limited, only being available to those who live or work in high-risk settings. More information regarding COVID-19 database information is available at hkpr.on.ca. The database is updated each Wednesday with information from the week prior.