UPDATED: 9 New Cases Of COVID-19 In Windsor Essex As Of Friday

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Last updated: Friday July 10th, 10:46am

The Windsor Essex County Health Unit has confirmed 9 new cases of COVID-19 as of Friday, bringing the local total to 1,780. They say 1,174 people locally have recovered.

Cases increased from 1,771 on Thursday July 9th to 1,780 on Friday July 10th.

The Health Unit says 2 of the 9 new cases are workers in the agri-farm industry, 4 cases are close contacts of cases, and 3 cases are still under investigation.

There have been no additional deaths due to COVID-19 as of Friday and the local death toll stands at 68.

The Health Unit says Riverside Place and Devonshire Retirement Residence remain under outbreak.

Five workplaces are under outbreak. One manufacturing facility and one agri-farm in Leamington are under outbreak, and three agri-farms in Kingsville are 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.

Differences Between Health Unit And Provincial Numbers

Responding to a question about the difference in numbers for Windsor Essex reported daily by both the province and the Health Unit, Dr. Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health for Windsor Essex says both use different criteria for announcing the same cases.

“We use a cutoff time of 8:00pm every night, so for example whatever data we are reporting to you this morning, the cutoff time is 8:00pm,” he said. “Sometimes when we get the data that is after 8 o’clock, that is not captured and reported in the next morning update.”

He says the province’s numbers each day may include numbers from previous days.

“Depending on when the province is extracting that data, that number can vary,” he said. “Depending on their data cycle, it shows a higher number. But overall when you put in two days worth of information it turns out to be exactly the same because we’re the ones who are receiving that information [from patients].”

“So unless [the province and the Health Unit] are using the same cutoff timeline, you may see some variation,” he said.

Antibody Testing

Dr. Ahmed says the Minsitry of Health is preparing to start antibody testing.  He says the ministry will soon be conducting antibody testing on some of the province’s pediatric population.

“We just heard from the public health lab that there is some testing that will be starting, some initiatives mainly targeting the pediatric population to do mass testing of antibodies,” he said.

Dr. Ahmed says the testing will be used to differentiate some cases among children where there’s evidence for Kawasaki syndrome.

But he says the ministry is also planning for broader antibody testing.

“The plan is to expand the testing to include other types of initiatives and the data associated with that,” he said.

Weekly Epidemiological Summary

Dr. Ahmed says Windsor-Essex has seen huge variations in new cases day over day, with spikes attributed to the agri-farm sector; the primary source of exposure is through close contact with confirmed cases; hospitalizations and ICU visits have decreased dramatically and there’s capacity in the system for increased need; and the current rate of transmission (R0) is 1.06 meaning every COVID-19 case leads to more than one new case.

Confirmed cases by reported date (agri-farm vs non-agri-farm)

Distribution of cases by municipality in the last 7 days.

Distribution of cases by occupation in the last 7 days.

Hospitalizations including intensive care since May 1st, 2020.

The full presentation can be viewed online at this link.