Protocols altered amid increase in variant cases

Households of those awaiting test results must now all quarantine

Household members of those awaiting COVID-19 test results must now join them in quarantine, the Windsor-essex County Health Unit announced Monday.

Under new measures put in place by the provincial government to contain more highly contagious variants of concern, household contacts of symptomatic people who have been tested for the virus must also stay home and self-isolate until the test recipient receives a negative result or alternate diagnosis from a healthcare provider.

Previously, only the individual waiting for the test result had to quarantine, and household contacts would only quarantine if the test came back positive.

Household members of highrisk contacts — like family of children whose class cohorts were dismissed following a classroom case of COVID-19 — will also be required to stay home except for essential reasons while the person identified as a contact is in isolation.

“These measures are important to identify VOC (variant of concern) cases early, even before the investigation starts, and help to prevent further spread of disease in our community,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health for Windsor-essex.

As of Monday morning, 511 variants of concern have been identified in the region, an increase of 131 since Friday. Preliminary testing indicates 430 are the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the United Kingdom, while the remaining 81 variant cases have not yet been classified.

Previously, the Windsor-essex County Health Unit had been waiting for confirmation from further lab testing to reveal what kind of variants the identified cases were.

Data presented by Ahmed on Friday showed between 30 and 50 per cent of new COVID-19 cases reported locally each day are variants of concern.

All positive tests in Ontario are further processed to detect for variants, though the results of that testing take two or more days to come back to the health unit.

The health unit will still initiate a case and contact investigation when individuals test positive “to contain the spread as quickly as possible,” Ahmed said. Variant of concern cases are prioritized for followup from the health unit before non-variant cases.

Anyone who previously tested positive for COVID-19 must still self-isolate if they are identified as having high-risk exposure to a new COVID case.

The health unit is also using a lower threshold for classifying contacts as high risk, Ahmed said. Things taken into consideration are the duration of contact with the infectious person, mask use, use of eye protection and the ventilation of the space where exposure occurred, among other things.

People are asked to self-isolate based on the health unit's risk assessment of their exposure.

The top doctor also shared current testing guidelines for anyone identified as a contact of someone with COVID-19. Those individuals are asked to seek testing seven days after exposure. If you were tested between zero and six days after exposure and tested negative, retesting will be required after 10 days, further into the virus's incubation period.

The health unit reported 41 additional COVID-19 cases on Monday. Eighteen were close contacts of confirmed cases, nine were attributed to community spread, and the transmission sources of 14 cases are still under investigation.

Over the weekend, 139 cases were reported: 54 close contacts, 30 attributed to community transmission and one related to an outbreak. Fifty-four cases were still under investigation at the time of reporting.

There are 457 active cases of COVID-19 in Windsor-essex. Twelve people who have tested positive are in hospital — including those transported to the region for treatment from elsewhere in Ontario — and eight of them are in intensive care.

Since March, 14,844 local residents have tested positive.

Six area workplaces have active COVID-19 outbreaks: one farm in Leamington, two manufacturing facilities in Windsor and Lasalle, and three health care and social assistance settings in Windsor.

St. John Vianney Catholic Elementary School also has an active outbreak, though in-person learning has been paused across Ontario.