WINDSOR, ONT. -- Chatham-Kent will be joining Windsor-Essex in the ‘Red-Control’ level of Ontario’s COVID-19 response framework.

The province released the list of regions changing levels on Friday. Windsor-Essex is staying in the red zone.

Chatham-Kent medical officer of health, Dr. David Colby, was confident the region would be moving into red Thursday after a steady rise in cases.

Dr. Colby said the new cases are mostly attributed to indoor gatherings.

CK Public health reported an increase of 21 new COVID-19 cases in the region Friday, bringing the number of active cases to 91

Windsor-Essex will be staying in the red zone for its sixth week.

Medical Officer of Health Wajid Ahmed is on a two-week leave that started last Wednesday, but health unit CEO Theresa Marentette said the health unit had not had any conversations with the province about changing levels.

“Based on the summary, and we have not heard anything from the province so it’s just an educated guess, I would assume we will remain in red,” Marentette said Friday morning.

This is what’s allowed in the red zone of the province’s reopening frame work.

WECHU’s manager of epidemiology and evaluation Ramsey D'Souza presented Friday’s weekly epidemiological summary  for Windsor-Essex with a summary of monitoring indicators:

  • Most recent completed weekly case rate: 50.1 cases/100,000 population
  • Per cent positivity week: 2.8 per cent (full week)
  • Most recent seven days available: 46.5/100,000 population
  • Most recent seven days: 2.7 per cent
  • Ro (effective): 0.9

Here’s the criteria for the red zone:

  • Weekly case rate of 40 or more/100,000 population
  • Percent positivity of 2.5 or more
  • Ro(effective) of 1.2 or more