Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, Windsor, January 16, 2020. Blackburn News file photo.Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, Windsor, January 16, 2020. Blackburn News file photo.
Windsor

All symptomatic people now being tested for COVID-19

Anyone in the region with one or more symptoms of COVID-19 can now be tested for the virus at local assessment centres.

The Windsor Essex County Health Unit wants all symptomatic people to be tested in order to get a better handle on the spread in the community.

"When we are testing more people, even with mild symptoms, we will have a better understanding of how this disease is progressing in the community. And if we really want to do a good job in case and contact management this is what we need to do. We need to identify those people and put them in isolation and identify their contacts so that they do not continue to expose other people," said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health for Windsor-Essex.

Symptoms include fever, new or worsening cough, shortness of breath, and sore throat. Anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms is encouraged to do a virtual assessment or contact their primary health care provider. Local assessment centres are located at Windsor Regional Hospital Ouellette Campus and Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington.

Dr. Ahmed said as more businesses and facilities reopen case and contact management will become even more important.

"We want to get a good handle on how this is impacting our community. We need to set a low threshold so that we can easily mobilize our resources and our public health work. All the good effort that we have seen so far in terms of reducing the community spread is by taking all those measures. So, now as we are scaling back those measures we need to know how this will impact the community in general," said Dr. Ahmed.

Dr. Ahmed said lab capacity has increased and there are better systems in place to get lab results quickly. To date, 14,180 people have been tested in Windsor-Essex, there are 922 tests pending.

The health unit confirmed 11 new cases of the virus Tuesday. No new deaths were reported. There are 794 confirmed cases in the region, 63 people have died and 453 have recovered.

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