The sixth wave of COVID-19 appears to be loosening its grip on Windsor-Essex.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported Tuesday that a total of 253 new high-risk cases of COVID-19 were confirmed since Thursday, the most recent day that the daily cases were reported publicly. That comes to an average of about 49 high-risk cases a day.
The health unit reported 100 new cases on Friday, 49 on Saturday, 37 on Sunday, just 18 on Monday, and 49 Tuesday. The case count on Monday is the lowest since early November 2021, before the Omicron variant-fueled fifth wave of the pandemic.
One patient had passed away from the virus since the Thursday report, a man in his 70s living in the community.
The health unit also reported a falling active caseload, with 200 people in Windsor-Essex testing positive for the virus as of Tuesday.
There was also good news for COVID-related hospitalizations in the region, with that number slowly falling. As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, there were 37 people admitted to hospital for COVID-19. Windsor Regional Hospital had 30 of those cases, with 25 treated primarily for the virus. Out of the 30 patients, 24 of them have been fully vaccinated. There were three people in intensive care, two of them fully vaccinated.
At Erie Shores Healthcare, there were seven patients treated for COVID-19, with four of them having the virus as the chief complaint. All patients except one were fully vaccinated.
The health unit is currently monitoring 22 outbreaks, with 18 of them in long-term care or retirement settings, three in the community, and one in the workplace.