UPDATE AT 4:00pm:  Case 302 identified as part of an institutional outbreak in what the health unit calls the “area of Kapuskasing, Opasatika, Val Rita-Harty, Moonbeam, Fauquier-Strickland”.

UPDATE AT 3:00pm: A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at the Maison Renaissance substance abuse treatment centre in Hearst. The Porcupine Health Unit doesn’t say whether it’s a resident or a staff member.  But under provincial guidelines, one case in such a setting constitutes an outbreak.

We’ve gone over the 300 mark in the number of COVID-19 cases confirmed by the Porcupine Health Unit. Numbers 300 and 301 are both in the Hearst-Hornepayne area.  The PHU says one is part of an institutional outbreak.  The only such outbreak reported in that area is at Foyer des Pionniers long-term care home in Hearst.

The other case is under investigation.

Wednesday night, the health unit reported two more deaths at Extendicare Kapuskasing, for a total of 15.  Twenty-four deaths attributed to the virus have occurred in the region.