Windsor-Essex County’s Health Unit reported the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases since late November on Monday.
Dr. Wajid Ahmed, health officer at WECHU, said the health department doesn’t believe the increase of 35 new cases was related to an intentional delay in test results, but noted that the numbers have fluctuated widely over the past few days.
“At this point, I have no official notification to the laboratories of any planned delays in reporting,” he said during his daily briefing. “But due to the high volume, it is possible that test results are prioritized differently, which leads to daily fluctuations in our daily case numbers.”
The health department reported 87 new cases on Saturday and 270 on Sunday.
There are 2,673 active cases in the region out of a cumulative total of 11,057.
Ahmed said he remained cautiously optimistic about the numbers, noting that the latest numbers are still showing improvement on average. An average of 177.4 cases were reported daily over the past seven days.
“I would take that as a good sign that we are going in the right direction,” he said.
The sharp drop comes after the region saw a weekly drop in some key indicators such as case rates and test positivity.
But Windsor-Essex is out of the woods, Ahmed said Friday, and remains one of Ontario’s worst-hit regions.
The last time the health unit reported a lower daily case count than Monday was on November 29, when there was an increase of 26 cases.
Across Ontario, 40,300 test samples were processed in the past 24 hours, lower than in many recent days when that number exceeded 70,000.
Ahmed said the number of people tested fluctuates locally every day but has no reason to believe the number has decreased in recent days.
1 new death as vaccinations continue in retirement homes
On Monday, the health department also reported the area’s 256th COVID-19 death, a woman in her 90s who lived in a retirement home.
Ahmed said vaccinations in retirement homes will continue this week.
While the health unit previously said the first round of vaccination could be completed by this early week, Ahmed said it looks more like Thursday if there are no issues.
The vaccinations in the homes are introduced with varying degrees of support from the health department. Ahmed said some homes do not have the care capacity to self-administer the vaccine to residents.
“We’ll support them as soon as possible,” he said.
48 outbreaks active
There are currently 48 active coronavirus outbreaks across the region and 119 people are being hospitalized with COVID-19.
Three outbreaks are active at Windsor Regional Hospital, two on the Ouellette campus and one on a unit on the Met campus.
A community facility, assisted living in southwestern Ontario, has been in the outbreak since Jan 3rd.
Outbreaks are active in 23 workplaces:
- Five in the Leamington Agricultural Sector.
- Four in the Kingsville Agricultural Sector.
- Four in the Windsor health and welfare sector.
- One in the Leamington health and welfare sector.
- One in the health and welfare sector at Lakeshore.
- One in the food and beverage service sector in Windsor.
- One in the manufacturing sector at Windsor.
- One in a personal service environment in LaSalle.
- Three in public administration settings in Windsor.
- One in a retail setting in Essex.
- One in Essex finance and insurance.
There are 21 active outbreaks in long-term care and elderly facilities:
- Chartwell Leamington in Leamington with a suitcase.
- Regency Park in Windsor with two resident bags and one personal suitcase.
- Richmond Terrace in Amherstburg with two personal suitcases.
- Chartwell Royal Marquis, with a resident’s suitcase and a personal suitcase.
- Harrow Woods retirement home with five resident cases and two staff cases.
- Seasons retirement home in Amherstburg, with three personal suitcases.
- Devonshire Retirement Residence in Windsor with 31 resident cases and four staff cases.
- Chartwell Royal Oak in Kingsville, with three stick cases.
- Rosewood Erie Glen in Leamington, with 30 residential cases and four staff cases.
- Chateau Park in Windsor with four personal suitcases.
- Leamington Mennonite Home with seven personal suitcases.
- Augustine Villas in Kingsville, with 51 resident and 14 staff cases.
- Sunrise Assisted Living of Windsor, with 11 resident cases and eight staff cases.
- Huron Lodge in Windsor with 44 resident cases and 26 personnel cases.
- Sun Parlor Home in Leamington, one resident case and 10 staff cases.
- Banwell Gardens Care Center in Windsor with 115 resident cases and 53 staff cases.
- The Shoreview at Riverside in Windsor, with 28 resident cases and 11 staff cases.
- Extendicare Tecumseh with 83 resident cases and 57 personal cases.
- Berkshire Care Center in Windsor with 94 resident and 60 staff cases.
- The village in St. Clair in Windsor with 150 resident cases and 122 personnel cases.
- Aspen Lake village in Tecumseh with 53 population cases and 25 personnel cases.
Falls in Chatham-Kent, Sarnia
In Lambton County, officials reported two new COVID-19 deaths and 31 new cases on Monday. There have been 1,647 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
Chatham-Kent recorded 46 new cases in the past three days, bringing the total to 1,017 and one more death. Chatham-Kent does not update its numbers on Saturdays and Sundays.
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