Outbreaks End At 3 Local Facilities, 11 New Cases Of COVID-19 In Windsor Essex As Of Wednesday

Wednesday May 20th, 2020, 9:29am

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The Windsor Essex County Health Unit has confirmed 11 additional cases of COVID-19 as of Wednesday, bringing the local total to 805. They said 455 people locally have recovered.

Cases increased from 794 on Tuesday May 19th to 805 on Wednesday May 20th.

The Health Unit says there have been no additional deaths due to COVID-19 as of Wednesday and the local death toll stands at 63.

They say outbreaks at three more long-term care and retirement facilities have now ended: Lifetimes on Riverside, Chartwell Kingsville, and Country Village Homes.

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health says the criteria for ending a declared outbreak at a long-term care or retirement home is a mix of testing and lack of symptoms among the facility’s population.

He says if there are no new cases in the facility for 14 days, or no patients or staff with new symptoms for 14 days, the facility’s outbreak can end. “All these residents are being monitored for their symptoms, they’re being checked for their temperature,” Dr. Ahmed says.

If those criteria are met, he says it “would be safe to assume that there is no transmission happening.”

“For example for 12 days there are no new cases, there is no new onset of symptoms, but on day 12 someone develops cough and fever, that puts them into a list of new onset of symptoms,” he said. “Then that person needs to be tested. If that result is being waited on, the [outbreak] can continue for more than 14 days. But let’s say on day 15 we get a negative result back, that facility can come out of outbreak because they met the criteria for no new cases of COVID-19 in the last 14 days and no new onset of symptoms that is suggestive of COVID-19.”

There are still ongoing outbreaks at 14 long-term care and retirement homes: