There's been another death linked to COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent.
Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said the deceased person was a woman in her 80s who was not vaccinated. The new death brings the total number of people who have lost their lives to the virus to 19.
Chatham-Kent Public Health didn't report any new COVID-19 outbreaks on Tuesday morning. The number of outbreaks stands at eight, five of which are small school outbreaks.
The number of active cases is down to 108 after 12 new cases were reported and 18 cases were resolved.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is reporting nine COVID-19 patients in the Chatham hospital. Two of them are not residents of Chatham-Kent and only one is fully vaccinated against the virus. Six of the patients are in the ICU and four of them are on ventilators.
Hospital officials are reporting the ICU is 90 per cent full and the medical, surgical, and critical care unit is 98 per cent full.
The hospital has six staff members off either because they're infected with COVID-19 or were exposed to it.
Colby told the CFCO Mornings with Dave and Cheryl that the church outbreak at Praise Fellowship Church in Chatham continues to be the largest outbreak with 24 cases and another 20 spinoff cases. However, he said it's under control and getting smaller.
"We're continuing to work on that, new cases are slowing with that one and hopefully we'll be able to wrap that up before too long," said Colby.
Chatham-Kent continues to lag behind the provincial rate of vaccination with 76 per cent of the population 12 and older fully vaccinated while the province is at 80 per cent and Colby said that continues to be a mystery to him.
"I'm not sure why there's such a reluctance here to get vaccinated. It's the way to keep you safe and keep everybody safe," he said.
Colby noted the COVID-19 proof of vaccination program continues to work well in Chatham-Kent with no problems reported a week into the passport program. He said it's very popular with the vast majority of the public and credits the passport for a slight increase in vaccination rates in Chatham-Kent.