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Roughly 1,000 of those cases were reported since Nov. 1
Approximately 25 per cent of recent cases have no epidemiological link, Ahmed said, meaning those individuals do not have a known exposure source, like a household contact with COVID-19 or exposure through a known workplace outbreak. In other words, a quarter of the region’s cases are being attributed to community spread.
The other most common infection source is household contact.
“When someone is infected, they are potentially infecting pretty much everyone else in their house,” Ahmed said. “Maybe, yes, you are healthy. Maybe you can recover from the virus, but some people cannot…. It’s something to be mindful of in terms of our responsibility in our activities when we are not at home.”
The case rate for Windsor-Essex is currently 73 per 100,000 population, far exceeding the 40 case threshold that landed the region in the “red zone” with tightened restrictions on social gatherings, among other things.
Wastewater COVID-19 surveillance being performed by a team of University of Windsor researchers shows the prevalence of virus indicators in wastewater — shed by residents in fecal matter — is “clearly surpassing the active cases, so in the next couple of weeks we may see more cases,” Ahmed said.
Last week, approximately 6,500 COVID-19 tests were completed in Windsor-Essex, with about four per cent of those tests coming back positive.
To deal with the increased demand for testing, Erie Shores HealthCare is expanding its testing capacity and adding 50 additional appointments to its schedule, Ahmed said. That announcement comes one day after the top public health doctor expressed his concern over a days-long wait for testing appointments in the region.
