FORT FRANCES, Ont. – An uptick of COVID-19 in the Rainy River region continued on Saturday, with the Northwestern Health Unit announcing six new confirmed cases.
One of those involved a resident at the Rainycrest LTC home in Fort Frances, prompting the health unit to declare an outbreak, as required by provincial guidelines when a single resident or staff member tests positive.
The health unit did not specify where the other five cases were located within its Rainy River region, which encompasses over a dozen communities.
However, it did say infections had moved beyond Rainy River itself, after recently warning of alarming rates of spread in the town of approximately 800.
“There continues to be an increase in cases in the District of Rainy River region and this is no longer contained to the community of Rainy River,” the health unit stated. “We recommend that everyone assume COVID-19 is in their community.”
The total number of active cases in the region was unclear Saturday, as the health unit had last updated its COVID-19 data on Dec. 30. At that time, there were 10 active cases in the Rainy River region, and a total of 19 across the NWHU's catchment area.
The health unit announced 15 new cases since that time - 7 in the Kenora region, and 8 in the Rainy River region.
Riverside Health Care, which operates the Rainycrest home in Fort Frances, said it would implement additional infection control and prevention measures following the positive test. Those will include more frequent testing and barring visitors to the home, except in end-of-life situations.
Staff at the home were being tested every seven days prior to the outbreak, it added.
