WINDSOR, ONT. -- The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting 70 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death as the region is set to pass a major vaccine milestone.
Health unit CEO Theresa Marentette says they expect to reach 100,000 people vaccinated with at least one dose by the end of the day on Friday.
“It’s very significant and it really is a testament to the commitment of our partners,” says Marentette.
Here’s the number of Windsor-Essex County residents vaccinated:
- 98,928 WEC residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine
- 86,494 WEC residents have received only one dose of a vaccine
- 12,434 WEC residents have received both doses of a vaccine
- A total of 111,362 doses have been administered to WEC residents.
The health unit says the vaccine has helped lower the case count and death rate.
The death toll related to COVID-19 has reached 406 people. A man in his 80s from the community was the latest death reported.
Windsor-Essex has had a total of 14,304 confirmed cases of the virus, including 13,478 people who have recovered.
Here’s the breakdown of new cases:
- 13 cases are close contacts of confirmed cases
- 9 cases are community acquired
- 48 cases are still under investigation.
Medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed gave the weekly epidemiological summary on Friday. Windsor-Essex is doing better than the provincial average in the key indicators. The case rate in the region is 72/100,000 and the per cent positivity is 5.5 per cent, compared to 3.8 the previous week.
Ahmed says there is a concern with the increase in cases in the younger population. Residents ages 0-19 and 20-29 make up 42 per cent of new cases over the last two weeks.
“We are starting to see some changes with who is getting COVID,” says Ahmed.
The health unit says 215 local Variant of Concern (VOC) cases have been identified in Windsor-Essex, 104 of the cases are still active.
WECHU says there are 393 active cases overall. There are 17 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the hospital and four people are in the ICU.
There are eight outbreaks in the region, including four at workplaces, two community outbreaks and two school outbreaks.
The region is under a provincial stay-at-home order as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
