BARRIE, ONT. Police report a 31-year-old man who was pulled unconscious from a basement fire in Barrie s west end earlier this month has died. Fire Chief Cory Mainprize said crews found the man in the lower level of the two-unit house on Mowat Crescent in Letitia Heights amid zero visibility conditions on Jan. 6. Mainprize said firefighters found the man unconscious. Simcoe County Paramedics worked to revive the man before rushing him to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre for treatment. He was then taken to a Toronto hospital. Police said he passed away two days later, on Friday, in hospital.
BARRIE, ONT. The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) reports 68 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, plus two new virus-related deaths. The region s death toll has hit 75 with the passing of two seniors. There are 1,206 active cases, including 33 infected patients hospitalized. The SMDHU has declared the outbreak at Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland now over. This after the hospital battled a stubborn spread of the virus, that infected patients and staff members since being declared in early December. There are currently 11 active institutional outbreaks listed by the health unit across Simcoe Muskoka, including eight long-term care and retirement homes, one childcare centre in Wasaga Beach, Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie, and Waypoint Mental Health Hospital in Penetanguishene.
BARRIE, ONT. Residents of Victoria Village Manor in Barrie are among the first in long-term care homes to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The pilot immunization program in Simcoe Muskoka started on Monday with 80-year-old Pat Sinclair becoming the region s first long-term care resident to be immunized. Sinclair, a former nurse, said she hopes being vaccinated gives her family a sense of relief. I m thrilled to be able to do this. I m hoping it gives me and my family that feeling of we re okay, we re going to be okay. We ll get through this, she said. This will be a game-changer for long-term care and congregate settings. It will level the playing field, said Bill Krever, Victoria Village president and CEO. As the number of COVID-19 cases increases in this region, the availability of this vaccine to our residents couldn t have come at a better time.
BARRIE, ONT. The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit reports 226 new cases and two recent deaths over the last three days. The health unit says a man between the ages of 65 and 79 connected to an out-of-region outbreak died Jan. 6. A woman older than 80 passed away Friday. She had been a patient at Georgian Bay General Hospital and is the seventh death associated with an outbreak declared at the Midland facility in early December. Seventy-three people with the virus have died in Simcoe Muskoka since the pandemic began, and the region has seen a total of 4,309 infections. There are 1,271 active cases. Thirty-five people with the virus are in hospitals across the region, including five in intensive care at the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.