43 New Cases Of COVID-19 In Windsor Essex As Of Tuesday

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The Windsor Essex County Health Unit has confirmed 43 additional cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, bringing the local total to 1,066. They say 645 people locally have recovered.

Cases increased from 1,023 on Monday June 8th to 1,066 on Tuesday June 9th.

Tuesday’s increase in cases represents the largest local daily increase since April 15th’s fifty-nine new cases, and is the second largest daily increase in local cases since the pandemic began.

Of the 43 new cases reported, 34 are “among workers tested as part of proactive testing related to case and contact management.”  The Health Unit did not provide further details as they did not hold a press conference on Tuesday.

“The initiative from Ontario Health and supported by local health system partners to do mass testing in agri-food sector and the drive-thru testing led by WECHU will lead to a temporary rise in the number of new cases in our region,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health, in a statement.

The Health Unit says there have been no additional deaths due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday and the local death toll stands at 67.

The Health Unit said last week they will no longer be providing the number of total tests conducted and the number of new pending tests each day due to the province’s expanded testing strategy. Dr. Ahmed said the reason for this is that testing is conducted “in different settings, which is not directly reported to public health.”

Random Testing

Random testing continues today at the Vollmer Centre in LaSalle (2121 Laurier Drive) between 10:00am and 4:00pm.  The random testing centre will move to Lakeshore on Friday (previously scheduled for Wednesday, but moved to Friday due to the heat) and Leamington on Thursday and details for those testing centres are expected soon.

Changes To Limits On Groups & Churches Reopening

The Health Unit says, per the direction from the provincial government, as of Friday June 12th at 12:01am, the restriction on social gatherings will be increased from 5 to 10 people. They say this is effective for all areas across the province including Windsor-Essex. The Health Unit says all places of worship are permitted to open if they ensure that physical distancing is maintained and limit attendance to no more than 30 per cent of the building capacity at any one time.

“In Windsor-Essex we have a number of factors to consider when determining our readiness for reopening including our proximity to the US border, our large agricultural and food sector, as well as a higher proportion of individuals considered high risk for COVID-19,” said Dr. Ahmed. “The objectives of the pandemic response have always been to save lives, protect the healthcare system and minimize societal and economic impacts from COVID-19.”

“As a region, we largely met the first two objectives and it is time to focus on the societal and economic impacts of COVID-19,” he said.  “I know it has been a long road and people are growing weary of restrictions but they are in place to protect all of us and in particular our most vulnerable.”

“As a community must continue to work collaboratively and all do our part, including strictly adhering to public health guidance and measures,” said Dr. Ahmed. “This is our only path forward.”