Renfrew County and District Health Unit (RCDHU) today updated its COVID-19 Case Summary. In response to questions from readers, The Current asked the public health authority to explain why case numbers reported at the 12 p.m. daily update sometimes get changed. For example, on May 20 RCDHU reported that the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases was 25, yet later that day the number of confirmed cases was reduced to 18.
RCDHU advises that the reduction in case numbers occurred because they “removed the cases related to military personnel as the military personnel were deployed in April to other areas outside Renfrew County and District and were infected there. These personnel are now self isolating in those respective areas.”
They go on to explain that there was some double counting by different health units. “The positive military cases do not reflect what is happening in RCD and therefore, it was decided that the cases should be attributed to the jurisdiction where they were exposed and remain.”
Every day The Current checks both the provincial numbers (released at 10:30 a.m.) and the RCDHU figures (available at 12 p.m.) and uses this information to change the data on both the news ticker and the COVID-19 “widget” on our home page. As the RCDHU points out, “As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, directives are changing day-by-day, even hour-to-hour, and minute-by-minute at times.” They say they are doing their best to ensure that the Case Summary is updated daily by 12 p.m. to correspond with the Test and Case Count Table found at the top of the RCDHU COVID-19 webpage.
Today’s Case Summary from RCDHU (below) shows no one hospitalized or in Intensive Care in Renfrew County and District, and that the death toll in the region remains at 1 person. Scroll down for a detailed breakdown of both test figures and the geographic location of positive cases, as at 12 p.m. May 21.
