Over 70 in Windsor-Essex? You're now eligible for a COVID-19 shot at a vaccine clinic

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) is expanding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to another group of seniors: those in the age range of 70 to 74.

Theresa Marentette, CEO of WECHU, said as of Friday, appointments for peoplein that age range can be booked at one of the health unit's four targeted clinics.

Starting on Saturday, appointments can be booked at anew clinic at the Libro Credit Union CentreinAmherstburg, which is slated to open Wednesday.

All vaccinations are occurringby appointment only, and bookings can be made on the health unit's website or WEVax.ca.

"You'll be able to choose your preferred location and appointment time based on availability," Marentettesaid.

Nearly a quarter of those in the age grouphave already gotten their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, manythrough apilot project ongoing at 57 local pharmacies, Marentette said.

Case rate has fallen

Meanwhile, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, the region's medical officer of health, saidthe latest COVID-19 ratesshow some improvementbut it's too early to say whether the local trend will continue in a downward direction.

"It's just the early indication that at least we arenot getting worse. We're either stable or moving in a better position," he said duringhis weekly epidemiological summary at the health unit's daily briefing on Friday.

His report showedthat the region's most recent weekly case rate per 100,000 people 38.1is within the criteria for the region to seea switch from the red level of COVID-19 restrictions to orange, though the current percentage of test results coming back positive3.5 per centis too high.

The province did not announce any changetoCOVID-19 restrictions withinWindsor-Essex on Friday. The region has been at the red level since mid-February.

The health unit also announced 16 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Ten people diagnosedwere close contacts of previous cases, five cases community acquired andone case is under investigation

There are 226cases active, and the death toll has stood at 401 since March 16.

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

Seventeen people are currently in hospital, includingsixin intensive care.

So far 77,670 vaccine doses have been administered in the region.

There are currently 11active outbreaks throughout the region.

Five community settings are in outbreak:

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

Five workplaces are in outbreak:

• One in Kingsville's agriculture sector
• One in Essex's manufacturing sector.
• One in Tecumseh's manufacturing sector.
• One in Windsor's public administration sector.
• One in Windsor's repair and maintenance sector.

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

The health unit also issued a low-risk COVID-19 exposure notice for the Tim Hortons in Devonshire Mall Friday afternoon. Anyone who visited the location on March 16 between 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. is asked to monitor for symptoms 14 days from the date of exposure, according to the health unit.

COVID-19 in Chatham-Kent, Sarnia Lambton

There were 29 new cases announced in Sarnia-Lambton on Friday. There are currently 217active cases in the region.

Chatham-Kent saw sevennew cases.The number of active cases dropped below 100, however, to 97.

Lambton Public Health is a grey "lockdown" zone while Chatham-Kent is at the red level.

Neither region saw any change to their COVID-19 restriction level on Friday.