WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting 113 new COVID-19 cases in the region on Wednesday.
Windsor-Essex has had a total of 5,012 confirmed cases of the virus, including 4,031 people who have recovered.
Here’s the breakdown of new cases:
- 27 cases are outbreak related
- 5 cases are contacts of confirmed cases
- 2 cases are community acquired
- 79 cases are still under investigation
This is the third triple-digit day in a row for in the region. On Monday, Windsor-Essex had a record 195 new cases.
Windsor-Essex reached a new "milestone" Wednesday seeing more than 5,000 cases since the onset of the pandemic.
"As I’ve shared it before, it took us 25 days to report 1,000 cases from reaching 3,000 to 4,000 mark and this time it took only 10 days," medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said.
Ahmed said he would have never thought cases in the region would reach that amount.
"Right now, 1,000 cases in 10 days, basically meaning we are averaging 100 cases — I could never even imagine or guess that it could be this high in our region, especially in March or even in the summer when we were seeing single-digit cases in the region.”
Ahmed believes the good numbers the region reported in September and October may have given the community a "false sense of security, leading to more transmissions of the virus.
He said with the wide-spread transmission it will some time for it to be contained, but current safety measures should help.
The health unit says there are 890 active cases. WECHU says 57 people are in the hospital with confirmed cases and 12 are in the ICU. In Windsor, there are also 79 patients in the hospital with suspected COVID-19, but are waiting for results.
There are currently 25 outbreaks in the region including three in the community, one hospital, eight long term care homes, two schools and 11 workplaces.
"The cases from our community are spilling into our long-term care homes, retirement homes as well as in the agri-cultural farms. As of yesterday we are dealing with three farm outbreaks with 21 cases and with more pending results," Ahmed said.
He reminded the community to continue to follow the guidelines in place under the grey-lockdown level of restrictions.
“We all need to work together to keep our community safe," he said.
The death toll related to COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex has reached 91. Fifty-six deaths are related to residents in retirement or long-term care homes and two are related to migrant workers.
