7,000 eligible people over 80 have pre-registered for COVID-19 shots in Windsor-Essex

Thousands of people whoare 80 and olderhave signed upto receive a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 24 hours after a new appointment registration system was launched, the local public health unitsays.

Theresa Marentette, CEO and chief nursing officer of the Windsor Essex County Health Unit (WECHU), said 7,000 people who meet the criteria, plus another 1,400not eligible at this time,have submitted applications since the platform came online Thursday afternoon.

"Within an hour we had like close to 800 people already pre-registered," she said. "We were surprised that that was so quick."

The first 80-plus vaccine clinic isopening up Monday, ahead of the launch of a provincialappointment reservationsystem and most, if not all,other health units in Ontario.

A second clinic for those in the same age groupis launchingthe following Monday in Leamington.

Marentettemade the comments atthe health unit's daily briefing on Friday morning. During the meeting, medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed presented his weekly epidemiological report outlining the region'srecent pandemic-related statistics.

While cases have declined sharply in recent months, theweekly case count remains high enough topreventWindsor-Essex from meeting the criteria to leavethered "control" zone of COVID-19 restrictions, he said.

For the most recent full week, the region saw an average of 47.8 new cases of COVID-19 per day, some of which were connected to outbreaks withinshelters, Ahmed said. The figure is a slight decrease from the previous week.

About 2.3per cent of tests completed locally have come back positive for the week ending on Feb. 20.

The publichealth unit also announced 32 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, and the death of a man in his 70s.

There are 261 active COVID-19 cases in the community and 379 people in Windsor-Essexhave died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

Chatham-Kent residents over 80 can now get vaccinated

Chatham-Kent Public Health is starting to vaccinate residents 80 years and older this weekend. The health unit says locals can call (519) 351-1010 on Saturday starting at 8:30 a.m. tobook an appointment.

Outbreak at Village at St. Clair over

After weeks without major increases in new cases, the COVID-19 outbreak at the Village at St. Clairhas been rescinded.

Sixty-three residents died in the outbreak, which beganin early December.

In total, the outbreakinvolved177resident cases and 143 cases among staff. At onepoint, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare temporarily took control of the home.

"It was the worst outbreak I think in our regionthat we have seen, and it was unfortunate that so many people lost their lives there," Ahmed said, adding thathopes the outbreak will result in better systems.

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There are a dozen outbreaks active across Windsor-Essex as of Friday.

Two are taking place at Windsor Regional Hospital and two are active at shelters serving people experiencing homelessness, the Downtown Mission and Salvation Army.

There are fiveactive outbreaks at workplaces:

• One in an agriculture setting in Leamington.
• One in LaSalle's finance and insurance sector.
• Two in Windsor's health care and social assistance sector.
• One in a Windsor manufacturing setting.

There are threeactive outbreaks at long-term care and retirement facilities:

• Franklin Gardens in Leamington, with 38 resident cases and 16 staff cases.
• Regency Park in Windsor, with 25 resident cases and 15 staff cases.
• Rosewood Erie Glen in Leamington, with 43 resident cases and 10 staff cases.

COVID-19 in Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent

There were fourCOVID-19 cases announced by Chatham-Kent Public Health Friday, and 17 cases remain active.

There were 10 new COVID-19 cases in Sarnia-Lambton.Overall, Lambton County has 68 active cases.