Sarnia-Lambton's COVID-19 numbers improved Tuesday.
Lambton Public Health reported just five new confirmed cases for a total of 2,259 since March 25, 2020.
Cases considered resolved went up 19 to 2,072 which means the number of active infections dropped by 14 to 141. The death toll has been unchanged since February 17 at 46.
The number of COVID-positive patients at Bluewater Health increased by one to four over the last 24 hours.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade said the recent increase in cases has been concerning.
"I am a little bit concerned because the numbers are higher than I'd like to see them," said Dr. Ranade. "They're still manageable, the health system is so far okay, our ability to do contact tracing is so far okay. The worry is that what starts off as manageable, quickly becomes unmanageable, and the challenge is how do you respond to that given that we've been yo-yoing between lockdowns and no lockdowns for a long time. People are probably becoming frustrated and tired of that."
Dr. Ranade told Sue Storr on CHOK (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) Tuesday morning that he expects we'll eventually get supplies of the Astra-Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson Janssen vaccines.
"The good thing about Astra-Zeneca and Janssen is that they're fridge-stable vaccines," he said. "We can use very traditional delivery methods for that. We can go to primary care offices, for example, who routinely immunize and say 'you have a fridge, you can keep some Astra-Zeneca and immunize your patients as they come in for their appointments'. Pharmacies can do it too, it's easier to use in the broader population."
Institutional and workplace outbreaks were unchanged since Monday at six.
As of Monday, there were 13 public schools in Sarnia-Lambton with at least one positive case, five in the Catholic board. All schools remained open.
