The number of health-care workers in York Region who have tested positive for COVID-19 has more than doubled following a routine "data cleaning" in the provincial case tracking system.
The confirmed number of cases in physicians, nurses and paramedics who reside in York Region communities jumped from 394 to 973 when 579 previously reported confirmed cases were identified through "routine data cleaning" of the province's CCM system last weekend, according to York Region spokesperson Patrick Casey.
"These cases were fully investigated and all contacts traced at the time of initial case confirmation," Casey said.
As of March 10, 976 health-care workers have tested positive, with 452 of the cases acquired in institutional outbreaks. Only five cases are currently active. Six cases have been reported in the last seven days.
The number of Newmarket residents who are health-care workers confirmed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began last spring now totals 99 — 59 of those cases were acquired in outbreaks. Only 2 cases, which were reported in the last seven days, are currently active.
The reclassification includes one death, which was previously reported on Nov. 15, 2020 as York Region's 295th COVID-19 related fatality, a 48-year-old Richmond Hill man who passed away Nov. 13 at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital with a case acquired by local transmission. The number of York Region health-care worker deaths now totals three.
Markham resident Christine Mandegarian, who worked at Sienna Altamont Care Community in Scarborough, was the first health-care worker in the region, and the second in Ontario, to die with COVID-19 on April 15, 2020.
"Data quality is an on-going process to ensure the data presented by York Region Public Health is accurate, high quality and shows how COVID-19 is evolving in York Region," Casey said. "These necessary data quality activities may result in changes to case data from time to time."
