Rising number of COVID deaths outside care settings is a sign of pandemic's seriousness, top doctor says

A lot of the COVID-19 deaths in Windsor-essex have been residents of the community — not just residents of long-term care facilities or retirement homes, says the region's top doctor.

Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, the region's acting medical officer of health, made the comment during the health unit's weekly epidemiological summary on Thursday.

“Many of the people dying of COVID-19 are people in the community,” Nesathurai pointed out. “From a public health perspective, these are premature deaths. If it weren't for COVID, they'd still be alive.”

The comment came following the health unit's reporting on Wednesday of an increase of six fatalities to the region's total COVID-19 death count.

Nesathurai noted that all six of those recently deceased — ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s — were community residents.

“I think that's a core message,” Nesathurai said.

To date, 604 people in Windsor-essex have died from COVID-19 since March 2020.

Ramsey D'souza, the health unit's manager of epidemiology, said local COVID deaths at the start of the pandemic were largely happening among residents of care facilities.

But since then, the ratio of deaths between care facility residents and community residents has evened out.

“We're seeing more and more community deaths,” D'souza said. “I'd say that if you're looking for a percentage, it's probably closer to 50-50.”

For Nesathurai, the observation is one that points to the continuing seriousness of COVID -19 in Windsor-essex — along with ongoing trends such as rising COVID case rates and hospitalizations.

D'souza reported on Thursday that the presence of COVID-19 in the region's waste water is currently at its highest since waste water monitoring began — surpassing the previous peak in late December and early January, during the arrival of the Omicron variant in Windsor-essex.

“Our viral signals (in waste water) are at our highest levels that we've seen since we started to monitor,” D'souza said.

But Nesathurai cautioned against giving the metric too much significance. “Wastewater data is one part of the data elements that we monitor for burden of disease. I'd only interpret the waste water data in the context of other metrics,” he said.

Meanwhile, a state of conflict continues regarding messaging on mask-wearing: Nesathurai reiterated that he highly recommends wearing of masks in all public indoor settings.

But the Province of Ontario is proceeding with its plan to drop all mask mandates — including at hospitals, long-term care facilities, health care settings, and public transit — on April 27.

Nesathurai maintained that it's the local health unit's responsibility to give “an honest assessment on the current situation, and what we think are the correct public health approaches to minimizing the burden of disease.”

“I remain optimistic that we'll have continuing dialogue with our provincial colleagues,” Nesathurai said. “I remain optimistic that we may have additional provincial direction on this item.”

As of Thursday, the health unit is counting 386 active “high risk” cases in the region, with 58 people in local hospitals because of COVID-19 — and two of those patients under intensive care.

The health unit is currently monitoring 28 active outbreak situations in the region — 12 of them in long-term care facilities or retirement homes, six in hospital units, nine in the community, and one at a workplace.

The community's COVID-19 vaccination rate remains relatively unchanged with 83.6 per cent of Windsor-essex residents ages five and older having received at least two doses.