One more Chatham-Kent resident has succumbed to COVID-19.
A woman in her 90s died from the virus, bringing to 64 the number of lives lost to COVID since the pandemic began.
Overall, Public Health is reporting 67 high-risk cases across the municipality today with the seven-day average rising to 26 new cases a day.
There are now 20 COVID patients at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, but just six of those are being treated primarily for the virus.
Meantime, as COVID cases rise across the province, calls are increasing to reinstate some COVID mandates, including masking mandates and increased PCR testing.
Such measures won’t be coming from the local level, however.
Chatham-Kent Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says a patchwork approach to restrictions won’t be effective at this stage of the game, and any new measures would have to come from the provincial level.
“If public health measures are reinstated, I think that’s got to happen in a coordinated fashion across the province,” Colby explains. “I’m not thinking that this is something that Chatham-Kent does in isolation.”
Earlier this week, officials from Ontario Science Advisory Table said wastewater testing indicated there are as many as 100,000 new COVID cases a day province-wide.
Dr. Colby says according to wastewater testing locally, numbers are inching up in Chatham, but holding steady in Wallaceburg.
“Public health measures that have been talked about, there are calls for a return to general masking, which I think is a good idea but unlikely to be effective against Omicron on its own. I think if we’re going to have public health precautions, we need a slate of measures to try and blunt the rise.”
