Critical care space is starting to get tight at the hospital in Chatham.
On Tuesday, the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) reported the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is 90 per cent full. CKHA Director of Communications Fannie Vavoulis said there are 13 patients with COVID-19 at the Chatham site. She said six of the COVID-19 positive patients are residents of Chatham-Kent while one is not and six more are patient transfers from across the province to free up ICU capacity in hot spots as directed by Ontario Health last month. Vavoulis added five of the COVID-19 patients are in the ICU, one of the COVID-19 patients is on a ventilator, and another patient without the virus is also on a ventilator. The ICU in Chatham has 10 beds.
The 12 bed medical, surgical, and critical care unit is at 84.7 per cent occupancy and hospital president and CEO Lori Marshall has said previously that two beds can be moved to the ICU to create capacity, if necessary.
Chatham-Kent Public Health reported three new cases and four resolved cases to bring the number of active cases down to 32. The only COVID-19 outbreak at an undisclosed workplace continues with three cases.
On Monday, the Foodland grocery store in Dresden reported a full time employee tested positive for COVID-19 and that all public health measures were being followed. The employee last worked on Friday and the store was notified by the public health unit on Monday.
"We have been in touch with our teammate to ensure they are well cared for and we are supporting them throughout their recovery," read a post on the store's Facebook page. "Our store ensures mask usage at all times and strives to maintain physical distancing for our employees and our customers. We conduct our own internal investigation into contact that may have occurred between the employee and other team members and if we deem any have been in close contact, we require them to self-isolate out of abundance of caution."
The store remains open. Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said there's no risk to the public, adding the employee works mainly in the office and anytime the person is in the store area they are behind plexiglass.
The province reported 2,073 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday and 15 deaths related to the virus. The number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 across the province remains high at 1,782. There are 802 patients in intensive care and 568 people are on a ventilator.
As of Monday night, 49 per cent of Ontarians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Walpole Island First Nation is reporting five active cases and no new deaths.