While the number of COVID-19 cases involving variants is growing throughout the province and hospitalizations are on the rise, the Windsor Essex region seems to be on a different course.
Case numbers involving variants of concern are much lower in Windsor-Essex compared to many other hotspots in the province. To date, only 51 cases involving variants have been identified in the region. Peel Region has identified 2,631, Toronto has identified 6,473, and the York Region has identified 1,868.
"It's a combination of both the containment of the disease that is happening as well as the measures that everyone are taking. We hope that we can keep it that way, but we definitely need support from everyone," said Windsor-Essex Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed.
Hospitalizations are also on the rise throughout the province, but rates are going down in Windsor-Essex. On Thursday, the Windsor Essex County Health Unit reported 13 hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Five of those patients are in the intensive care unit. Throughout the province, there are 894 patients with COVID-19 in hospital, while a week ago there were 759.
"One of the key drivers of our hospitalizations has been the long-term care home and retirement homes and with them, more than 90 per cent of the residents are vaccinated. I think this is definitely keeping our health system in general in a much better shape than where we were," said Dr. Ahmed.
Despite that, Dr. Ahmed doesn't expect the region to move from the red-zone on the province's COVID-19 Response Framework this week.
"While the other health system indicators are important, I think the critical piece has always been the actual case counts," said Dr. Ahmed.
On Thursday, the health unit reported 21 new cases of COVID-19. Among the new cases, six are close contacts of confirmed cases, six are community-acquired, two are outbreak-related, and seven are still under investigation.
"We will get through this. I think it's just a matter of making sure we get a critical mass vaccinated to break the chain of transmission. When we have enough people vaccinated, all of these case rates will start to go down and with loosening of the restrictions there will be much more opportunity for everyone to get back to some kind of normalcy in their life," said Dr. Ahmed.
To date, 73,978 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given out in Windsor-Essex.
Currently, the health unit and Windsor Regional Hospital are vaccinating around 1,900 residents a day. This number does not include the residents receiving vaccines through pharmacies.
So far, about 5,500 people have been able to book appointments through the new booking system. The system continues to book about 3-4 days in advance. Residents are reminded to check daily for appointment times.
