As cases rise in province, local top doc hopes Windsor-Essex keeps 3rd wave at bay

As COVID-19 cases rise once again inOntario, local health officials say they aren't yet seeing the same increase in Windsor-Essexand hope it stays that way.

"I really hope and pray that we don't have to deal with a third wave. I think ourcommunity has suffered enough and our health-care workers have suffered enough, like it's been exhaustive," said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex.

"Everyone is burntout at this time and we really hope that we don't have to deal with the third wave."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has already cautioned Ontarians against making plans to gather over the upcoming Easter weekend, hinting further restrictions will be announced in the coming days. It's unclear whether restrictions would impact Windsor-Essex, and Ahmed said he has not been part of any conversations, so is unsure how the region will be impacted.

But Ahmed emphasized the need for local restaurants and bars, whichhave been allowed to expand their capacity limits as of March 20, to continue to adhere to public health guidelines so there's no localspike in cases.

The health unit reported 54 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. Of these,20 are close contacts of a confirmed case,seven arecommunity acquired and 27 are still being investigated.

Ahmed did not have an update on the several clusters resulting from three funeral gatherings that the health unit spoke about on Tuesday. The latest numbers provided note 30 COVID-19 cases have come from these gatherings.

The pandemic has claimed 403 lives in Windsor-Essexand13,891 people have tested positiveto date.

As of Wednesday, 78,615 people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Ahmed said that because of the vaccine pilot project that rolled out at local pharmacies, Windsor-Essex is "ahead" of many other regions in the province.

"The coverage rate for 60 to 64 is pretty high and thanks to all the pharmacies who rolled out the vaccine for us in that particular age group," Ahmed said. "We need more vaccine, we've got our clinics and when there's more vaccine we should be able to vaccinate more people and get our region as safe as possible."

There are14 people inhospital with the disease, with four in intensive-care.

Seventycases of COVID-19 that involve variants of concern have been identified locally. Three have been confirmed to be the variant first foundin the U.K. while the rest of the results are preliminary.

There are 329 active local cases, and eightongoing outbreaks.

Four community settings are in outbreak:

• The Welcome Centre.
• The Downtown Mission.
• Victoria Manor.
• South West Detention Centre.

Three workplaces are in outbreak:

• One in Kingsville's agriculture sector
• One in Essex's manufacturing sector.
• One in Lakeshore's manufacturing sector.

One school,W.F. Herman Academy, has an active outbreak.

COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent, Sarnia-Lambton

There are nine new cases of COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent, and 79are active overall. Ten people have died in the region and four people are currently in hospital as a result of the disease.

In Sarnia-Lambton, 179 casesare active overall.Fifty people have died after contracting the disease since the pandemic started.