Chatham-Kent Public Health is reporting a new COVID-19 death and 65 new cases.
Health unit spokesperson Jeff Moco said the latest death, reported on Monday, involved a woman in her 70s. Hers brings the total number of deaths to 63.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) also reported seven patients in the Chatham hospital being treated primarily for COVID-19, but none of them is in the ICU. Hospital officials said 11 other patients are being treated because they were admitted for other reasons, but have tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, CKHA is making some progress to clear its surgery backlog.
CKHA President and CEO Lori Marshall said the hospital group is currently performing 90 per cent of the surgical volume it did in 2019-2020 before the pandemic. Marshall said endoscopy procedures are almost at pre-pandemic volumes and cancer surgery and diagnostic imaging have exceeded those volumes. However, orthopedic procedures are lagging below the 90 per cent mark and continue to be a focus of improvement for hospital officials. Marshal said ramping up to 90 per cent of the surgical volume is quite an achievement considering the adverse impact the pandemic had on hospitals and surgeries.
"One of the things we need to note is that this performance is actually quite remarkable. It's something we should be very proud of not only at CKHA but in our community," said Marshall.
Marshall hopes the rising number of COVID-19 cases won't reach levels seen in the last wave when CKHA at one point was treating 30-plus patients with and primarily for the virus.
"Anecdotally I would say this appears to be a slightly different experience than we've had in the previous wave," Marshall said.
Marshall also said hospital volunteers should be returning to the hospital by mid to late April, signalling the return to a new normal.
"I think this is another real indication that we're moving towards a new normal of operations," she said.
There are also two active outbreaks reported by the health unit. One of them is at the Medicine Unit of the Chatham hospital and it has grown from three cases to seven cases. The other outbreak is at Blenheim Community Village Long Term Care Home and it has 34 cases.
