The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit revised it COVID-19 stats after discovering a hospitalization reported earlier this week was wrongly classified.
The health unit removed Haliburton’s second reported COVID-19 hospitalization in an update Aug. 7, after initially listing it Aug. 5. The organization said on its website the change happened because the case was not hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment.
“The Health Unit was notified of a positive lab result for an individual in hospital in Haliburton County,” communications officer Bill Eekhof said. “However, upon further investigation and follow-up, the confirmed case no longer meets the criteria for a ‘hospitalized case of COVID-19.’”
Eekhof said the health unit could not address specific COVID-19 cases for privacy reasons. But he said that if someone goes to a hospital for a medical problem unrelated to COVID-19, but is tested and found to also have the virus, they are not counted among hospitalized cases. He added a person is counted as a hospitalized case if they go for COVID-19 symptoms.
With the reclassification, Haliburton has still only had one COVID hospitalization, which occurred in April, and no deaths. The County has had 14 cases in total, two of which are active as of Aug. 7. There are also currently seven high-risk contacts in Haliburton.
