COVID-19 cases creeping upwards in KFL&A region

The number of daily cases of COVID-19 has seen a slight increase in Kingston Frontenac Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) since the start of February, fuelled in part by two local clusters.

An outbreak at an unconfirmed industrial or manufacturing facility, first declared on Friday, Feb. 12, 2021 had risen to nine active cases as of Tuesday afternoon.

Public Health does not disclose the name of a business where an outbreak has occurred unless they determine a risk to the general public, or are unable to directly reach all possible high-risk contacts.

Queen’s University also confirmed 10 cases amongst community members living off-campus during the week of Feb. 8, 2021. This is the highest number of cases reported by the University since mid-December, and follows four weeks of reporting one case or less.

So far for the week of Feb. 15, 2021, Queen’s has not confirmed any new cases on or off-campus.

Queen’s has not provided any statement directly pertaining to the high number of off-campus cases last week, but asked students to avoid unnecessary travel outside the KFL&A region during their reading week. Reading week runs from Monday, Feb. 15 to Friday, Feb 19, 2021.

“As previously communicated, the university is requesting that all students, staff, and faculty who must travel for essential purposes outside the KFL&A, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, and Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark region, or who have had visitors from outside the region, self-isolate for 14 days,” said a statement on the University’s COVID-19 updates page.

“This means that those who travel outside the region over the reading week break will not be able to access campus until completing a 14-day isolation.”

COVID-19 trends from January to February

The KFL&A region saw a brief lull in the prevalence of COVID-19 at the end of January, following the imposition of a Provincewide Shutdown and provincial Stay-at-home order. Active cases, which dropped to 12 on Monday, Feb. 1, 2021 are now at 26. Between Friday Jan. 22 and Monday Jan. 25, the seven-day average for the percentage of positive tests dipped to 0.12. As of Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021 that number has risen to 0.26.

For a six-day stretch between Friday, Jan. 29 and Wednesday, Feb. 3 zero cases were reported on three days. New cases have been reported every day since Friday, Feb, 4, 2021, with two days of five or more cases confirmed.

Schools also reopened to in-person learning on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. Four cases have been reported in people aged 10-19 years old since that time, as well as four cases in people under 10 years-old.