BARRIE -- It was a somber start to this week's update from the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, reporting four more COVID-19 related deaths over the past 24 hours.

"105 of the 131 are all related to outbreaks," says Dr. Charles Gardner, Medical Officer of Health with the health unit.

According to the health unit, there were 40 deaths last week alone; 33 as a result of the ongoing outbreak at Roberta Place Long Term Care home.

On Tuesday, the health unit reported 29 new cases of COVID-19 surpassing the 5,200 case mark, but over the past three weeks, the number of cases has slowly been going down from 448 the week of January 10 to 440 last week.

"Our reproductive number is 0.9, which is down from last week at one," says Gardner.

"So anything less than one means it's shrinking, starting to come under control, and the pandemic is going in the right direction."

Most cases were reported in Barrie with 11, Bradford with four, and Springwater with three. Several other communities reported two or less with the location of three cases still pending.

There were 1,219 active cases in the region, with 35 people remaining in hospital as of Tuesday afternoon; however, 3,826 people have recovered from the virus, including 32 since Monday.

So far, RVH has administered more than 15,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the region, with another 341 yesterday, including 960 people who are now fully immunized.

About 90 per cent of long term care home residents have received their first dose of vaccine. Long term care and retirement homes in Barrie and Bradford are now the top priority for available second doses of the vaccine, which may be slightly delayed.

"There's a slow down right now that's going to continue until mid-February before we can really ramp up immunization again," says Gardner.