'Burden' of COVID-19 in community matches previous lockdown criteria: WECHU

The "burden of disease" in Windsor-Essex has reached levels that would have likely qualified the region for a lockdown under previous public health guidance, according to officials from the local health unit. 

Over the weekend, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) issued a letter of instruction to the community that announced increased COVID-19 measures starting Friday. These include encouraging employers to allow staff to work from home, if possible, along with increased capacity limits for gatherings and restaurants or bars. 

On Monday, WECHU reported 187 new COVID-19 cases, that includes 86 cases reported on Saturday and 62 cases reported on Sunday. In total, 518 cases remain active in the community. 

No new deaths were reported. 

"Given the burden of disease and the specific goals that we have in Windsor-Essex, I think that these public health measures are required to try to bring the burden of disease to a more manageable level in the community," said WECHU's acting medical officer of health, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, during a Monday morning media briefing. 

Following this, Nesathurai said that there are still about 50,000 people in the region who are eligible for a vaccine. He urged those who remain unvaccinated to get the shot, noting that this will help reduce the amount of COVID-19 in the region. 

"From a community level, we still need higher vaccination rates because we're still far from where we'd like to be. If we had vaccination rates of 99 per cent we could probably withdraw many of these public health approaches," Nesathurai said. 

There are 19 workplace outbreaks, nine school outbreaks, seven community outbreaks and two outbreaks at long-term care homes. 

Ten of the workplace outbreaks are in manufacturing/industrial work settings across the region. 

Long-term care homes in outbreak include: Chartwell Royal Oak Long Term Care Residence in Kingsville and Country Village Health Care in South Woodslee. 

About 1 per cent of health district in isolation 

Due to the spread of COVID-19, Nesathurai said that about 4,000 people — or 1 per cent — of our region's health district are in self-isolation either from testing positive for COVID-19 or being a close contact of someone who has.

On Friday, local hospitals said they were under strain and have reduced bed capacity due to COVID-19 patients. In total, 23 people are in hospital with COVID-19 as of Monday. 

"The hospitals feel that their resources are stretched to the limit and if hospital limits are stretched to the limit then people who need care cannot receive care," said Nesathurai. 

While Nesathurai said he recognizes "how difficult" the past 20 months have been on businesses, he added that "they are part of the resolution of this pandemic." 

Despite the high number of cases and ongoing outbreaks at local schools, Nesathurai said the priority is to keep schools open to in-person instruction. 

Enhanced screening at Erie Shores HealthCare

As of Monday, Erie Shores HealthCare is adding a COVID-19 testing requirement for anyone entering the hospital:

• Vaccinated visitors are required to test negative on a Rapid Antigen Test that will be completed on arrival to the hospital.
• Unvaccinated visitors are required to provide screeners with a negative PCR test result, taken within 72 hours and they are required to also test negative on a rapid antigen test that is completed on arrival to the hospital.

COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent, Sarnia-Lambton

Sarnia-Lambton has 61 active cases of COVID-19 and four active outbreaks. 

Meanwhile, Chatham-Kent Public Health is reporting 138 active cases of COVID-19 and nine active outbreaks Monday.