Health unit urges caution with wider social circles as province loosens rules

As local residents expand their social circles with COVID-19 in mind and with permission from the province, the Windsor-essex County Health Unit is urging people to be cautious.

Although Windsor-essex was again left in Stage 1 of the province’s plan to restart the economy on Monday while additional regions entered Stage 2, local residents were permitted to expand their social circles to a maximum of 10 people in accordance with an announcement by Premier Doug Ford on Friday.

“People need to know that, yes, this is something that they can do, but they also need to be very clear and very careful who they’re having this social circle with,” medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said on Monday.

COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb among the region’s agricultural farm worker population, many of them migrant workers, Ahmed said. But spread among the general community remains “relatively stable” and low.

“With these types of initiatives, if done appropriately, it should be okay, as long as people are following the direction we are providing.”

Within a social circle, social distancing measures are not necessary, according to the province’s guidelines. One person should only be part of one social circle.

As of Monday morning, 1,198 people in Windsor and Essex County have tested positive for COVID -19, up seven from Sunday. Five of the seven new cases were workers in the agricultural sector.

Over the weekend, the health unit reported 58 additional cases of the disease. Of those, 50 were from the agricultural sector, two were health-care workers and six were residents of the community.

In total, 706 people have recovered and 67 have died.

Two local long-term care homes are being monitored for COVID -19 outbreaks. They are Village of Aspen Lake in Tecumseh and Country Village Homes in Woodslee.

One staff member at each of the two facilities has tested positive for the virus within the past two weeks.

On a positive note, the final five patients located at the local COVID -19 field hospital at St. Clair College have been released and returned to the Heron Terrace longterm care home in east Windsor.

They were the last remaining patients at the location inside the college’s Sportsplex, which was opened April 17 in emergency fashion, primarily to treat elderly patients from area long-term care homes.

In just over two weeks, the Sportsplex was transformed into a 100-bed hospital facility and was staffed by Windsor Regional Hospital employees.

The Sportsplex will go dormant in treating patients for the virus, but remain on standby in case it’s required again in the future due to the ongoing pandemic.

“The goal was to care for the COVID -19 positive LTC residents, allowing for cohorting for better overall protection in an environment better equipped for increasing complexities of care,” hospital CEO David Musyj said.

“We are extremely proud of the compassionate, extraordinary care our professional staff and employees provided to these residents and the contact with their families throughout several weeks of anxiety and uncertainty about COVID-19. We thank the many families for their support of the process and the privilege of caring for their loved ones.”

Windsor Regional Hospital is working with St. Clair College and the provincial Health Ministry on ongoing availability of the facility.

“It has been our honour to have played host to this field hospital and also to have donated equipment to local hospitals as they battled the pandemic,” said St. Clair College president Patti France.

“Our involvement sprang from the remarkable Windsor-essex mindset that always arises in times of crisis.”