'A good sign:' Windsor-Essex reports 35 COVID-19 cases

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unitreported Monday the lowest dailyincrease in COVID-19 cases since late November.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health with WECHU, said the health unit doesn'tbelieve the increase of 35 new cases is related to an intentionaldelay in test results, butnoted there have been bigswings in the numbersin recent days.

"At this point, I don't have any official notification from the labs about any planned delays in reporting,"he said during his daily briefing. "But it is possible due to the high volume, test results are prioritized in a different way, leading to day-to-day fluctuations in our daily case counts."

On Saturday, the health unit reported 87 new cases, while there were 270 on Sunday.

There are2,673 active cases in the region, out of a cumulative total of11,057.

Ahmed said he remains cautiously optimistic about the numbers, and noted that taken as an average, the recent numbers still show improvement. Over the past seven days, there has been177.4 daily reported cases, onaverage.

"I would take that as a good sign for us moving in the right direction," he said.

The sharp decline comes after the region sawa weekly decreasein a few key indicators such as case rates andtestpositivity.

But Windsor-Essexis not out of the woods, Ahmed said Friday, and remains one of the regions of Ontariomost badly affected by the virus.

The last time the health unit reported a daily case count lower than Monday's totalwas on Nov. 29, when there was an increase of 26 cases.

Across Ontario, 40,300 test samples were processed over the past 24 hours, which is lower than many recent days, when that number topped 70,000.

Ahmed said the number of people tested fluctuates every day locally, but he doesn't have any reason to believe that the number has gone down in recent days.

1 new death as vaccinations continue in seniors' homes

On Monday, thehealth unit also reported the region's 256th COVID-19 death, a woman in her 90s who was a resident of a seniors' home.

Ahmed said vaccinations are continuing at retirement residences this week.

While the health unit previously said the initial round of vaccinations could be complete by this early week, Ahmed said it's looking more like Thursday, barring any issues.

Vaccinations at the homes are rolling out with varying levels of support from the health unit. Ahmed said some homes don't have the nursing capacity to administer the vaccine to residents themselves.

"We are supporting them as quickly as possible," he said.

48 outbreaks active

There are currently 48 active coronavirus outbreaks across the region and 119 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.

Three outbreaksare active at Windsor Regional Hospital, two on theOuellette campus and oneon a unit of the Met Campus.

One community setting, Assisted Living Southwestern Ontario, has beenin outbreak since Jan. 3.

Outbreaks are active at 23workplaces:

• Fivein Leamington's agriculturalsector.
• Four in Kingsville's agriculturalsector.
• Four in Windsor's health care and social assistance sector.
• One in Leamington's health care and social assistance sector.
• One in Lakeshore's health care and social assistance sector.
• One in Windsor's food and beverage service sector.
• One in Windsor's manufacturing sector.
• One in a personal service setting in LaSalle.
• Three in public administration settings in Windsor.
• One in a retail setting in Essex.
• One in Essex's finance and insurance sector.

There are 21active outbreaks at long-term care and retirement facilities:

• Chartwell Leamingtonin Leamington with one staff case.
• Regency Park in Windsor with two resident cases and one staff case.
• Richmond Terrace in Amherstburg with two staff cases.
• Chartwell Royal Marquis, with one resident case and one staff case.
• Harrow Woods Retirement Home, with five resident cases and twostaff cases.
• Seasons Retirement Home in Amherstburg, with threestaff cases.
• Devonshire Retirement Residence in Windsor, with 31resident cases and fourstaff cases.
• Chartwell Royal Oak in Kingsville, with threestaff cases.
• Rosewood Erie Glen in Leamington, with 30resident cases and fourstaff cases.
• Chateau Park in Windsor with four staff cases.
• Leamington Mennonite Home with sevenstaff cases.
• Augustine Villas in Kingsville, with 51 resident and 14staff cases.
• Sunrise Assisted Living of Windsor, with 11 resident cases and eight staff cases.
• Huron Lodge in Windsor, with 44resident cases and 26staff cases.
• Sun Parlor Home in Leamington, one resident case and 10staff cases.
• Banwell Gardens Care Centre in Windsor, with 115resident cases and 53staff cases.
• The Shoreview at Riverside in Windsor, with 28resident cases and 11staff cases.
• Extendicare Tecumseh, with 83resident cases and 57staff cases.
• Berkshire Care Centre in Windsor, with 94resident and 60staff cases.
• The Village at St. Clair in Windsor, with 150resident cases and 122staff cases.
• Village of Aspen Lake in Tecumseh, with 53resident cases and 25staff cases.

Cases in Chatham-Kent, Sarnia

In Lambton County, officials reported two new COVID-19 deaths and 31new cases on Monday. There have been 1,647 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Chatham-Kentsaw 46 new cases over the past three days, bringing its total to 1,017, and one additional death. Chatham-Kent does not update its figures on Saturdays and Sundays.