Accolades to the Residents of Scugog and surrounding area – Durham Statistics

BETTY SOMERVILLE Special to The Standard

This is only FYI that I want to share with each of you. I have been diligent in keeping daily statistics since the Covid-19 began on March 13th worldwide and can see the flattening of the curve occurring. The USA being the epicentre at present with Spain and Italy who were following close behind are now showing a decrease in corvid-19 cases. Thankfully many of the European countries are showing that their curve is beginning to flatten as well, the USA is not! Besides, I am not sure how true countries are in reporting their actual Covid-19 statistics. I can only go by what is documented daily! I am not advocating that we should let our guard down but it is so refreshing to see a change in statistics. Besides who knows if there will be a rebound!!! We who live in Durham Region are very lucky especially those of us who live in North Durham.

The Villa, Nursing home and Westshore have not been exposed to COVID-19. The Retirement Homes shut their doors two weeks prior to the isolation due to a flu epidemic. Visitors were not allowed in and nothing could be brought in from outside to be given to the clients. If you did send in a package, it was kept for a few days in their office until they were sure it did not carry any contamination. I am not sure about our Community Hospital, but word has it, no one has been diagnosed positive. Staff have been going about their daily work but remaining vigilant. Accolades to these 4 venues! It is so great that they kept strict isolation. That was definitely their saviour. Scugog has a population of 22,000 people and as of April 26th only 7 tested positive and five are now cleared, one remains on self isolation, in home. There have been no deaths from the virus in Scugog. Brock has 2 positive cases, one remains in home on self isolation. Uxbridge has 19 cases, with 6 residents on home isolation and a few of those were in the Douglas Crossing Retirement home, plus 2 deaths in Long Term Care facilities. Cases in the rest of Durham break down as follows; Clarington 51, Whitby 77, Ajax 219 and Oshawa 137. Durham Region has had 899 residents test positive. There have been 51 deaths in Durham with 39 incidents among residents of long-term care and nursing homes, as of April 26th. That leaves 11 deaths of unknown origin. We are also very fortunate to be living in Canada. To date Canada has a population of 37.5 million with only 46,687 testing positive. Unfortunately 2,560 deaths have occurred due to COVID-19. Deaths from COVID-19 are listed as follows; Quebec at 1515, Ontario at 835, BC at 100, Alberta at 73, Saskatchewan at 4, Manitoba at 6, Newfoundland at 3, Nova Scotia at 24. PEI and New Brunswick have had no deaths as of April 26th. Considering Canada’s population compared to the number of positive cases for COVID-19, Canada stands at the 13 safest country in the world! Accolades to everyone who has been following instructions, staying home, making sure they follow social distancing, with frequently and 20 second hand washing, plus masking if you wish. The residents of Scugog have been very vigilant in this and I think that this is the reason why we only had 7 positives.