Reopened businesses given passing grade
Most complied with health measures over weekend, says region’s health chief
Local garden centres and hardware stores reopened smoothly over the weekend with lengthy lineups of eager customers following strict guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In a few instances, public health enforcement officers provided retailers with education on enhanced safety precautions, the Windsor-essex County Health Unit’s medical officer of health said Monday morning. Otherwise, businesses successfully followed public health measures to keep people safe without intervention.
“While there were a number of lines in traffic, in general, most businesses had put in the necessary precautions and followed health measures to guarantee shoppers’ safety,” said. Dr. Wajid Ahmed during the health unit’s daily virtual news conference.
Windsor police and municipal bylaw enforcement officers also monitored compliance with public health restrictions, he said.
As of Monday morning, Windsor-essex has 726 confirmed cases of COVID-19, up 21 from Sunday. Locally, 275 people have recovered from the virus and 59 people have died.
The province permitted retailers with street entrances to reopen for curbside pickup on Monday. But before any business or workplace resumes operation, Ahmed said, it should perform a risk assessment to determine what additional public health measures it should adopt to address its “unique set of challenges” in limiting the spread of COVID-19.
“As we continue to open up the province and ease restrictions, I encourage the residents of Windsor-essex to continue to take appropriate precautions and follow public health guidance,” Ahmed said. “This will help to ensure we can contribute our part in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and continue to move forward as a region.”
For more information on how to keep workplaces safe, Ahmed urged business owners and operators to visit the health unit’s website (wechu.org) or to contact its environmental health department at 519-258-2146 ext. 4475.
No additional COVID -19 related deaths were reported in the region on Sunday or Monday.
On Saturday, the health unit announced a woman in her 90s had died because of the virus. She was a resident of a long-term care home.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 have been declared at 15 long-term care and retirement homes. At eight of those facilities, only one resident or staff member tested positive for the virus. The health unit reported that many of those eight individuals were asymptomatic.
People who are symptomatic “with a cough or sneezing ... are the ones with the ability to spread (COVID -19) at a distance to someone who is close to them or even in the general environment,” Ahmed said. “More steps need to happen (to spread the virus) for someone who is asymptomatic.”
Asymptomatic individuals can spread COVID-19 by touching their eyes, nose, or mouth and getting the virus on their hands. The virus then sits on the surfaces and objects they touch. A person who touches those objects or surfaces would then need to touch his or her own eyes, nose, or mouth to contract the disease.
By maintaining physical distancing and washing hands thoroughly and often, “we are reducing the chances of spread,” Ahmed said.
Testing at local long-term care and retirement homes is nearly complete, Ahmed said. At the homes where public health nurses and paramedics with Essex-windsor EMS have performed testing, all residents have been swabbed. Owners and operators of a few of the region’s 44 long-term care and retirement homes chose to execute the tests in-house and are still working to finish.
In Windsor and Essex County, 11,034 people have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 1,761 results are still pending.
Ahmed said he expects the lab backlog of local tests — many of them from long-term care and retirement home residents — to clear up this week thanks to enhanced lab processing and turnaround time now in place. twitter.com/wstarcampbell