Travel-related infections made up 18 per cent of the region’s new confirmed COVID-19 cases in July, public health says.
Dr. Ryan Van Meer, one of the region’s associate medical officers of health, said Tuesday 15 of 81 cases were related to out-of-country travel: seven of those were people who had travelled to the United States, five were people who travelled to India and one case each involved trips to the United Kingdom, Nicaragua and Pakistan.
So far in August there have been 25 new cases. Six of those are travel related, the region’s COVID-19 dashboard shows.
“This serves as an important reminder that travel outside of Canada continues to pose a risk,” Van Meer told regional councillors during a committee meeting Tuesday. He noted the federal government continues to advise against unessential travel outside of the country.
Public health officials said they do not record the reason why a person has visited another country, so it’s unknown if those who travelled did so for work, family commitments or a vacation.
Van Meer says the overall status of the novel coronavirus in the region “remains stable.”
The region reported 1,410 cases as of Wednesday morning, a rise of four cases since Tuesday. More than 58,200 tests have been done and 90 per cent of positive cases have been marked as resolved.
There are 28 active cases in the region with two people in hospital. The number of people who have died from COVID-19 since March remains at 119.
