With a current case rate of 46.5 per 100,000 population, the Windsor-Essex region will be staying in the red for at least another week, but with some loosened restrictions.
In a release on Friday, the province announced changes to a number of regions, though Windsor was not one of them. To move to the orange level on the province's COVID-19 Response Framework the region would need a case rate below 40. Chatham-Kent also also joined the region by moving to the red level from orange on Friday.
The province said it will be "cautiously adjusting" restriction on dining capacity limits at restaurants and bars for regions in orange-restrict and red-control levels starting March 20 at 12:01 a.m. Subject to social distancing rules, the total occupancy cannot exceed 50 patrons while in red and 100 patrons in orange.
In the last week, about 7,320 tests were completed in Windsor-Essex. About 2.8 per cent of those tests camt with some loosened restrictions. e back positive. This is another indicator that shows the region will remain in the red-control level.
There are currently 21 people receiving treatment for COVID-19 in the hospital, of those four are in the intensive care unit. This is a considerable decrease from the peak of the second wave.
On Friday, the Windsor Essex County Health Unit reported 29 new cases of COVID-19. There are now 279 active cases of the virus.
Since the start of the pandemic 13,534 positive cases have been identified. Of those, 12,854 have been resolved.
In Windsor-Essex 401 individuals, or three per cent of all positive cases, have died due to the virus.
-With files from Ruby Sweeney
