Windsor-Essex tops grim milestone for COVID-19 deaths

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2021. (Chris Campbell / CTV Windsor)

Windsor, Ont. -

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting 359 new cases of COVID-19 and four additional deaths on Friday.

WECHU says due to the recent surge in Omicron cases and changes in eligibility for testing, testing capacity is limited and case, contact, and outbreak management has been modified to focus on high-risk settings. As a result, the health unit says case counts in the dashboard are an underestimate of the true number of individuals with COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex and may impact data completeness.

The health unit says two men and two women in their 70s, all from the community, have died. The death toll related to COVID-19 in the region surpassed a grim milestone and is at 501 people.

“When the pandemic was first declared in March 2020, I don’t think any of us expected to still be counting cases and marking these tragic losses of life almost two years later,” said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. “While each of us have suffered some kind of loss during this public health crisis, none more so than those who have lost a family member or dear friend to COVID-19.”

Windsor-Essex has had a total of 28,092 confirmed cases of the virus, including 24,947 people who have recovered. The health unit says 2,644 cases are currently active.

HOSPITALIZATIONS

WECHU says 49 COVID cases in the region are currently hospitalized and nine are in the ICU. The health unit and hospital numbers sometimes differ slightly depending on the time of reporting.

Windsor Regional Hospital reported 44 people with COVID in hospital on Thursday, which is the same number as Wednesday. WRH says 37 are being primarily treated for the virus. Out of those patients, 19 are fully vaccinated, two are partially vaccinated and 16 are unvaccinated. There are six COVID patients in the ICU - five are unvaccinated and one is partially vaccinated.

According to Erie Shores Healthcare on Friday, there are eight patients with COVID in hospital. Seven of those patients are being primarily treated for the virus. Five patients are unvaccinated and three are vaccinated.

OUTBREAKS IN WINDSOR-ESSEX

• 1 Workplace is in COVID-19 Outbreak
• 14 COVID-19 Community Outbreaks
• 2 Schools or Daycares are in COVID-19 Outbreak
• 11 Long-Term Care or Retirement Homes are in COVID-19 Outbreak
• 1 Hospital is in COVID-19 Outbreak

WINDSOR-ESSEX COUNTY RESIDENTS VACCINATED

• 359,915 WEC residents have received at least one dose of a vaccine
• 25,124 WEC residents have only received 1 dose of a vaccine
• 334,791 WEC residents have received both doses of a vaccine
• 141,370 WEC residents have received a 3rd dose/booster shot of a vaccine. Please note: Third doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are available for prioritized populations. Further information is available at https://www.wechu.org/cv/clinics#third-dose.
• A total of 836,076 doses have been administered to WEC residents
• 87.2% of WEC residents 5+ have received at least 1 dose
• 81.1% of WEC residents 5+ are fully vaccinated