155 new Ontario measles cases sees total infections exceed 800 [Video]

Ontario is reporting 155 new measles cases over the last week, pushing the province’s case count to 816 since an outbreak began in the fall.

The number of new cases has increased again after a few weeks of appearing to stabilize in the 100-per-week range, which public health physicians had taken as a sign of potential optimism.

Public Health Ontario says there have now been 61 hospitalizations – that’s 11 more than last week – including 47 children. Unimmunized kids are the predominant group infected by the outbreak.

Most cases are still in Ontario’s southwestern public health unit, and spread to two more public health units this week, including Hamilton and Northeastern, which covers Timmins and Englehart.

Southwestern’s Dr. Ninh Tran says there’s been a 130 per cent increase in measles vaccinations at local public health clinics from January to April compared to last year.

That translates to an additional 940 doses in arms.

Tran also …