Niagara Region hits 200 COVID-19 cases for the first time since June

For the first time since June, Niagara Region has hit 200 ongoing COVID-19 cases.

With 21 new cases today, the region is sitting at the double-century mark and the push up after a quiet low-case-number summer is the Delta variant, which is responsible for 100 per cent of all cases.

In a Monday morning media briefing, Dr Mustafa Hirji, Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, said the region’s proximity to Hamilton, which he called “the epicentre of COVID in the province,” was helping drive this region’s case number up.

“Us (Niagara) being just across the border from Hamilton, there was a high likelihood that their cases would start to spill over to us. Unfortunately, we are starting to see a bit of that.”

St Catharines has the most active case numbers at 67 while Niagara Falls is next at 42. Also hitting double-digits are Welland, Lincoln, Thorold and Grimsby with 23, 15, 13 and 10 cases respectively.

The remaining six municipalities have between one and six cases each.

~ With files from Nathan Sager