WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting 16 more people have died related to COVID-19 and there are 202 new cases.
Health unit officials say the deaths reported Monday reflect the highest number of deaths reported by WECHU in a single day. However, not all of the deaths occurred on the same day. Whenever a death takes place the health unit investigates the cause to ensure it was COVID-19 related before including it in their reporting.
Thirteen people who died were residents of long-term care homes – two women and two men in their 70s, three women and one man in their 80s, four women and one man in their 90s. A long-term care staff member, a woman in her 60s, also died related to the virus.
The other two deaths were people from the community - one man and one woman in their 70s.
“Between December 25th and today we reported more than 2000 cases,” said medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. “We are starting to see the cases resulting from possible exposure from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and even other gatherings that took place before Christmas.”
Ahmed says there is some good news - vaccinations began at local long-term care homes over the weekend. About a quarter of the residents in the facilities are now vaccinated, with the rest expected to get the first dose in the next seven to 10 days.
As of Monday, Windsor-Essex has had a total of 8,502 confirmed cases of the virus, including 5809 people who have recovered.
Here’s the breakdown of new cases:
- 48 cases are outbreak related
- 12 cases are close contacts of confirmed cases
- 3 are community acquired
- 139 cases are still being investigated
There are 2,526 cases considered currently active. The health unit says over 100 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized and 16 people are in the ICU.
There are 42 outbreaks in the region, including 20 outbreaks at LTC and retirement homes.
