Regional COVID-19 indicators are still moving in the right direction, but remain high.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit indicated the current case rate in the region is 61.4 per 100,000 residents. The current positivity rate among those tested remains unchanged from last week at 5.2 per cent.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said one of the trends he is concerned with is the high number of community-acquired cases in the area. Around 36 per cent of cases since the beginning of May have been acquired through community spread.
“There are two possible situations here. One is people who are sick, they’re not going for testing and still going out and about and infecting other people. The other possible explanation is people are not disclosing who they are coming in close contact with,” said Dr. Ahmed.
He said it is very important for case and contact management to disclose all people you may have had contact with. This is particularly important with the variants of concern in the community.
There are currently 343 active cases of COVID-19 and half of those involve a variant of concern.
To date, 10 recent COVID-19 deaths have been connected with a variant of concern.
On Friday, the health unit reported a man in his 60s passed away after contracting the virus. It is unclear if he had a case involving a variant or if he was previously vaccinated. There have now been 421 deaths in the region connected to the virus.
The health unit also reported an increase of 41 new cases on Friday morning. Among those new infections, 15 were acquired due to contact with a confirmed case, nine were community-acquired, one was outbreak-related, and 16 are still under investigation.