Deadliest day of pandemic so far, say officials

Health officer pleads `stay home' as 16 more deaths are reported

Sixteen more Windsor-essex residents have lost their lives to COVID-19 in the deadliest 24hour period of the pandemic to date.

Thirteen of the deaths reported on Monday were residents of longterm care homes: two women and two men in their 70s, three women and one man in their 80s, and four women and one man in their 90s.

A man and a woman in their 70s who lived in the general community also died of COVID-19, as did 60-year-old Sheila Yakovishin, an employee of Berkshire Care Centre, a long-term care home in Windsor.

The previous record for the deadliest day of the pandemic in

Windsor-essex was set on Dec. 26, when the Windsor-essex County Health Unit reported 11 COVID deaths.

There have been 167 local deaths as a result of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

“The message is (to) stay home,” said medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. “Don't do anything you do not need to do. You do not need to meet anyone. You do not need to go for non-essential visits ... That's the only way we can bring these case counts to a number manageable for our region.”

The health unit on Monday reported 202 additional cases of COVID-19 in the region, bringing the total number of infections up to 8,502.

Since Christmas, more than 2,000 in the region have tested positive.

“We're starting to see the cases resulting from possible exposure from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and even other gatherings that took place before Christmas,” Ahmed said.

Many of the residents who have recently tested positive have told public health unit staff that they did partake in behaviour discouraged by the health unit, but they believed they were doing it safely, he said.

“It is not OK, plain and simple. “At this time ... nothing is safe and people should strictly follow the lockdown measures ... If we really want this region to move forward safely, we have to take action right now and it starts (with) every one of us.”

There are 2,526 active cases in Windsor-essex, all being monitored by health unit staff. Of those, 103 are in hospital with 15 in intensive care. Resolved cases number 5,809, though some of those individuals may be experiencing lasting health impacts of the virus.

There are 42 active outbreaks at locations across the region.

Twenty of the outbreaks are at long-term care and retirement homes where 485 residents and 234 staff members have tested positive since as far back as Nov. 30. Those numbers do not include cases among residents and staff at facilities with rescinded outbreaks.

Hospitals are struggling to send staffing support to the 20 longterm care and retirement homes with active COVID-19 outbreaks, “and it has become a crisis,” Ahmed said.

“You have a staffing crisis in each of these long-term care homes that are experiencing an outbreak right now,” he said. “Your hospital systems are in crisis because of the inability to provide care for the number of positive cases.”

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the health unit reported a total of 654 new COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths.

Of the deaths reported on Sunday, five were residents of longterm care. Two women and one man in their 80s, plus two men in their 90s. One man in his 70s from the community has also died.

Eight deaths were reported on Friday and Saturday. Among that group were five from the community — a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 60s, a man in his 70s and two women in their 80s. Three of those who died were residents in long-term care that included two women in their 70s and a woman in her 80s.

Two schools have active outbreaks, including a newly declared outbreak at Georges P. Vanier, a French Catholic elementary school in Windsor. Although students have not been in class since Dec. 11, transmission can still occur between staff who remain onsite, Ahmed said, or students who were part of a class cohort with a positive case may have waited to seek testing.

The other school outbreak is at St. Rose Catholic Elementary School.

Sixteen workplaces also have active outbreaks, including eight farms (five in Kingsville and three in Leamington), five health care and social assistance businesses (two in Windsor and one each in Essex, Lakeshore, and Tecumseh), a manufacturing facility in Tecumseh, a food and beverage service in Windsor, and a personal service setting in Lasalle.

There are community outbreaks at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope and Victoria Manor.

Hotel-dieu Grace Healthcare's Prince Road facility and Windsor Regional Hospital's Met campus are also managing COVID-19 outbreaks.