Second wave of COVID-19 threatening to overwhelm community

Rates of COVID-19 transmission in Windsor and Essex County are now as bad as they were months ago during the first COVID-19 wave's peak.

Presenting pandemic statistics for the month of November, medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed on Monday said the region is in bad shape right now and warned it can get worse.

“We're back to where we were in the worst case of our pandemic,” Ahmed said before again pleading with residents to take responsibility for their actions and follow public health guidance — mainly, to avoid social gatherings.

“We're at a very crucial time. If we can't get it controlled, we're looking at probably the worstcase scenario and potentially overwhelming the entire community, our health-care system, everyone.”

While a large portion of infections reported in the first wave was limited to relatively isolated sectors — long-term care and retirement homes and migrant farm worker populations — that's no longer the case, Ahmed said. Now, a significant amount of transmission is “happening pretty much everywhere,” with outbreaks in schools, long-term care facilities, at a farm — all as community transmission rates climb higher than they were during Wave One.

“A lot of (infections) are resulting from the community, which is much more dangerous,” he said.

With so many cases in the community and not restricted to living and working on farms or shut into assisted living facilities, the likelihood of an infected individual attending school, work, restaurant and other “high-risk business environments” makes “the risk of exposure” to other members of the public “significantly high,” Ahmed said.

The WECHU on Monday reported 36 additional cases of COVID-19, above average for daily case increases reported in the region over the past two weeks. Eighteen of the new cases are close contacts of people who previously tested positive, while four are attributed to community spread. Two infections are related to travel to the United States, and one is a local health-care worker.

The origins of 12 COVID-19 cases are still under investigation by public Windsor-essex County Health Unit staff.

There are 310 active cases in Windsor-essex.

Ahmed reported 20 per cent of the 495 local cases recorded so far this month affected people ages 19 and under — a “new and concerning” development. Until recently, young people made up a small portion of the region's infections.

Two city elementary schools where public health unit staff continue to investigate active outbreaks are currently closed, and all staff and students are self-isolating at home.

At Frank W. Begley Public School, at least 39 staff and students had positive or probable cases as of Monday morning. At least four members of the W. J. Langlois Catholic Elementary School community have tested positive.

“The steepness of this curve is significantly higher than what we have seen in the first wave and that's one of the most concerning things.”

On Oct. 21, the WECHU reported zero new cases of COVID-19 for the first time since March.

“Look at where we are right now with a high number of cases,” Ahmed said. “That highlights the significance of how quickly, when we're talking about the spread, it's exponential spread.”

“With the rate we're going, we'll be on track for a very dangerous path.”

Approximately 76 per cent of cases in November have occurred in Windsor residents.

Since March, 3,326 residents of Windsor and Essex County have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Fifteen people with COVID-19 are in hospital, and four of them are in the intensive care unit.