WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting three additional deaths and 101 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday.

The people who died were all women in long-term care or retirement homes in their 70s, 80s and 90s.

The local death toll related to COVID-19 has reached 280 people.

Medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed says the region is seeing some progress with lowering the number of new cases.

“All of this progress that we have made, it is the effort of everyone coming together and doing their part is preventing the spread of the disease,” says Ahmed. “We would like to see that continue and I think that’s the critical message that we want everyone to understand.”

Ahmed added that continuing to follow the public health guidelines is critical.

Windsor-Essex has had a total of 11,447 confirmed cases, including 8,951 people who have recovered.

Here’s the breakdown of new cases:

  • 18 are related to outbreaks
  • 9 are close contacts of confirmed cases
  • 72 are still under investigation

WECHU says 2,216 cases are considered active. There are 110 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the hospital and 16 people are in the ICU. There are 167 suspected cases in the hospital.

There are 49 local outbreaks - 19 outbreaks at long-term care or retirement homes, 23 workplace outbreaks, five hospital outbreaks and two community outbreaks.