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THURSDAY APRIL 1, 2021 ent, ything ou need One Desjardins Agent,Agent, everythingeverythingeverything you needneed AUTOPRO OAKVILLE 2212 Wyecroft Road, Oakville 905-469-2442 info@autoprooakville.com 19951995 -2021 Desjardins, Desjardins Insurance and related trademarks are trademarks of the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec, used under licence.C ST -0 24 2 Home and Auto Insurance Tailored for You by the Upper Oakville Demille Team Get in touch today Darryl R Demille Insurance and Financial Services Darryl Demille CFP,CFP,CFP Agent 905-842-1020 darryldemille.com Richard Demille, Agent 905-257-0111 richarddemille.com Rob J Demille, Agent 905-849-3050 robdemille.ca CRIME TRAFFIC WEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHERWEATHER CRIMECRIMECRIMECRIMECRIMECRIMECRIME REA D T H E N E W S A S IT H A P P E N S A T IN S ID E H A LT O N .C O M BALANCING ACT Graham Paine/Metroland Nikolina Ivankovic takes advantage of some beautiful spring weather to do a little paddle boarding at Bronte Bluff Park. The number of COVID-19 vari- ant cases in Halton is rising quickly, with local health offi- cials saying the majority of infec- tions are being contracted through community transmis- sion. This was among the details Halton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hamidah Meghani shared during her update to regional council March 24. The region's top doctor said that in early January, almost none of the reported new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed or like- ly variant cases, which are con- sidered highly contagious. But by mid-March, this figure had risen to 36 per cent. "It's now taking only about 1.7 weeks for the count of new vari- ant cases reported since Jan. 1 to double, compared to 12.6 weeks for nonvariant cases," she said. Meghani also explained that the reproduction number for lo- cal variant cases is 1.1, meaning every variant case is infecting 1.1 people on average, compared to 0.8 for nonvariant cases. "This is especially troubling when you consider that repro- duction number should ideally be much lower than one for vari- ant cases, given that they are known to be more contagious," COVID-19 VARIANT CASES DOUBLING RAPIDLY: PUBLIC HEALTH MELANIE HENNESSEY mhennessey@metroland.com See MAJORITY, page 10 MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH EXTREMELY CONCERNED