UPDATED: 53 New Cases Of COVID-19, 1 New Outbreak In Windsor Essex As Of Friday
Friday July 24th, 2020, 9:42am
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Last updated: Friday July 24th, 10:26am
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit has confirmed 53 new cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, bringing the local total to 2,124. They say 1,365 people locally have recovered.
Cases increased from 2,071 on Thursday July 23rd to 2,124 on Friday July 24th.
The Health Unit says 43 of the 53 cases are agri-farm workers, 5 cases are from the community, and 5 cases are under investigation.
There have been no additional deaths due to COVID-19 as of Friday and the local death toll stands at 69.
As of Friday, 15 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Windsor Essex, according to the Health Unit, and 9 hospitalizations are listed at Windsor Regional Hospital.
The Health Unit says Chartwell Leamington, a retirement home on Henry Avenue, is now under outbreak after two staff members tested positive. They say Village of Aspen Lake and Augustine Villas remain under outbreak.
A total of 10 workplaces are under outbreak in Essex County. The Health Unit’s website lists two manufacturing facilities, one in Windsor and one in Leamington under outbreak, and eight agri-farms, six in Kingsville and two in Leamington under outbreak.
A workplace outbreak is declared when two or more employees test positive for COVID-19 within a reasonable timeline to suspect transmission in the workplace, according to the Health Unit. Officials with the Health Unit have said a workplace will only be named if a threat to the public exists.
Possible Walmart Outbreak
Responding to reports about a possible outbreak at two local Walmart stores, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health says four workers who tested positive for COVID-19 are actually household contacts of each other. He says the four workers are students and the acquisition primarily happened at their home.
The stores are not considered under outbreak at this time, based on the Health Unit’s outbreak criteria, but Dr. Ahmed says the Health Unit is investigating the situation closely. “We are still trying to figure out if any of them worked while they were infectious at the Walmarts,” he said.
Dr. Ahmed says shopping at stores can still be safe if proper precautions are taken.
“My message has always been if you’re going to any of these commercial establishments, by default you should assume that anyone you are interacting with or anyone you’re coming in contact with could potentially have COVID so you always do everything that you need to do,” he said.
He says shoppers should clean their hands when entering stores, limit what they touch, and when leaving the establishment, shoppers should clean their hands again. He says taking all those measures “eliminates any risk that you could potentially have in any of those commercial establishments.”
Weekly Epidemiological Summary
Dr. Ahmed says Windsor-Essex is seeing more cases outside of the agri-farm sector; the primary source of exposure is through close contact with confirmed cases; hospitalizations and ICU visits have increased in the last 7 days; and the current rate of transmission (R0) is 0.83 indicating a decrease in transmission in Windsor-Essex.