WINDSOR, ONT. -- Leamington mayor Hilda MacDonald is renewing a call for testing after hearing there may be another potential outbreak in the municipality.
Windsor Regional Hospital confirms four of the five patients currently on ventilators came from Erie Shores HealthCare.
“We have certainly transferred patients from our hospital up to the ICU in Windsor,” says ESHC chief of staff Dr. Ross Moncur.
Four are confirmed to have COVID-19 and the fifth is considered a probable case.
Some of the hospitalized cases may have come from 'one community' in the Leamington area.
“I've hear the same thing from a number of sources today,” says MacDonald.
MacDonald says she first heard about a potential outbreak in her community last night.
“It is a concern,” she says.
Windsor Regional Hospital won't confirm or deny a link to any specific group.
“We don't have the data to say whether there is an outbreak or how bad an outbreak may be in a particular segment of our community,” says Moncur.
Moncur says Erie Shores has seen an increased number of cases of COVID-19 going through their assessment centre and emergency department in the last week.
“That has happened after a slight lull in that activity over the previous few weeks so we are a bit concerned we're seeing a bit of an uptick in cases in general,” says Moncur.
When asked about the possibility of another outbreak in Leamington this morning, Windsor Essex County Health Unit chief medical officer Dr. Wajid Ahmed only said they are trying to stay connected to that community.
“There has been concerns raised in other regions too so we are trying to work with some of the other health units to get more details and to address any risk to the community,” says Ahmed.
Erie Shores reached out to communities at risk to stay ahead of potential outbreaks.
“We've re-doubled our efforts to reach out to any group in our community that might be facing some barriers to care,” says Ross. “Those can be language or cultural barriers, religious barriers, transportation barriers. Anything we can do to improve.”
Officials are trying to schedule a meeting with various groups next week.
“We need to find a way to test people again voluntarily and to keep pushing the physical distancing and the mask wearing, all of that. It's a huge concern to me,” says MacDonald.