Several more COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the region.
Public Health Sudbury and Districts is reporting three in Greater Sudbury - one appears to be outbreak-related, the others are unknown at this time - bringing its total to 525, though the number "active" is down to 56.
It has - on the other hand - confirmed at least one case of the more highly transmissible COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7 - first detected in the UK - while reporting three other possible cases of the variant, two completing quarantine after international travel, the other a contact of a known case of a "variant of concern" in another public health unit - sequencing is underway to confirm whether those three have the variant.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Penny Sutcliffe says this is a "reminder that we are all vulnerable and we are not somehow specially protected", noting - while the variant is "much more infectious" - it spreads "in the same way as regular COVID-19", but it is important to "ramp up our prevention measures and truly limit or even avoid our contact with people outside of our own household".
Meanwhile, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's confirmed ten more COVID-19 cases in the Thunder Bay area and two in unspecified "district communities", bringing it up to 1029, 118 "active" including two in hospital.
Some good news: the health unit's also declared the outbreak at Valard Construction's East-West Tie Project camp in Marathon "over".
Algoma Public Health currently has 19 "active" cases - two in hospital - while the Porcupine Health Unit has 76 "active".