Niagara Public Health confirmed that one of Wednesday’s eight new COVID-19 cases is linked to international travel.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji, Acting Medical Officer of Health for Niagara Region, revealed the infected resident went on vacation to an area where COVID-19 case numbers are significant and contracted the virus while there. The country where the virus was contracted was not disclosed, however, Hirji said it wasn’t the United States.
Hirji doesn’t believe the infected person poses a major risk for the additional spread of the coronavirus in the Niagara region. They followed the recommended protocols when returning from abroad. They isolated themselves upon arrival, were tested, and will complete the required 14-day quarantine.
Hirji used the opportunity to stress the importance of avoiding non-essential international travel as many countries are seeing greater cases of COVID-19 than in Canada.
The top five countries with the largest number of COVID-19 cases include: The United States (almost five million cases), Brazil (more than 2.8 million cases), India (over two million cases), Russia (871,894 cases). Data is from WorldoMeters.com
Today, Niagara Public Health reported only one new COVID-19 case in the region. This brings the total number of cases to 878 and the total number of active cases to 57 (as of Thurs. Aug 6, 2020).
The total number of active outbreaks have reduced from seven to six since Wednesday.
Ontario reported 95 new COVID-19 cases today. It is the fourth day in a row that new case numbers in the province have remained under 100.
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Niagara Region Health COVID-19 data
Worldometers.com COVID-19 trends by country