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A dozen new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Windsor-Essex on Monday while more than 900 residents await test results from an inundated London lab.

“We have been testing more individuals, and more proactively, in the long-term care homes and retirement homes,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health, during the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit’s morning update. “That is one of the reasons we are seeing an increase in pending cases — that is across the board.”

The London lab facility that processes COVID-19 test results for Windsor-Essex receives samples from multiple regions under the purview of other health units, he said.

“There has been some delay there in processing those samples just because of the volume, but we are hoping that will clear up soon.”

Monday’s update follows a weekend report of three local fatalities related to COVID-19. Three females all in their 90s and all from long-term care facilities died Friday.

Despite the unknown presented by 916 pending tests, Ahmed said Windsor-Essex is “flattening the curve” of positive cases, and the province appears to be doing the same.

Through case and contact management, partnerships with local municipalities and health-care facilities, and mass efforts to educate the public, “we prevented the surge,” Ahmed said.

“We preserved the health care system’s capacity to serve the needs of our community.”

In the coming days, Ahmed said, the health unit will continue to aid the City of Windsor as it expands efforts to support the local homeless population and offer testing to the entire emergency shelter population, regardless of symptoms. Those with mild symptoms in need of a place to recover will receive a room appropriate for self-isolation with meal and medical supports. Those requiring significant medical support will be transferred to hospital.

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Currently, shelter staff screen guests upon entry and refer them for virtual medical assessment with a WECHU nurse practitioner, who can refer them for on-site testing if needed.

Other people who live in group settings, including migrant workers in the county, are also receiving support from the health unit, Ahmed said.

“Our team is working with the OGVG (Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers) and also the municipalities and the farm owners to have a good system in place for early detection of these cases, and sending them for appropriate testing and treatment,” Ahmed said. “That process has been working so far. Mass testing of these workers is not at this stage (what) we are doing, but it’s something we are closely monitoring. If needed, we will do that depending on the situation.”

So far, “things are working fine” despite the significant number of migrant workers housed in the county, Ahmed said.

The health unit announced new guidelines Sunday regarding the use of community gardens in light of the provincial government’s decision a day earlier to relax restrictions on the use of allotment and community gardens.

The WECHU, under Ahmed’s direction, has developed a two page document, COVID-19 Guidance for Community Gardens.This document can be found on the WECHU website at wechu.org/cv/food.

The resource is meant for garden organizers and/or managers and garden members. It briefly identifies actions that must be taken in order to ensure the safe operation and use of local gardens. Key actions include: access to garden spaces and tools, regular cleaning & sanitation guidance and instruction for physical distancing and social gathering.

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WECHU’s weekend announcement said if following public health guidance, individuals should feel confident and comfortable to begin their spring planting and maintenance.

Windsor-Essex has 569 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 139 people have recovered and 38 people have died.

In total, 5,679 people have been tested, including the pending tests.

The age groups with the highest rates so far are those ages 50 to 59 (17 per cent of cases) and those age 80 and over (23 per cent of cases). While gender appears to make little difference in who contracts the disease, women over the age of 80 are more highly impacted than males in the same age group.

Locally, 39 per cent of cases are among men, and 60 per cent are among women. The genders of the remaining one per cent of people who have tested positive are unknown to the health unit.

Chatham-Kent has 46 cases, and Sarnia-Lambton has 170.

In Canada, 47,327 people have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those, 14,856 are in Ontario.

Michigan has 37,778 cases, and Detroit has 8,613.

Worldwide, 2,982,933 people have the virus.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

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