The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sarnia-Lambton had climbed by just one Tuesday morning, but another death was reported by Bluewater Health.
Communications Chief Julia Oosterman said the 11th patient to die is a 91-year-old man admitted February 28 but for privacy reasons she said she can not disclose where he lived. The hospital also reported that as of 10:30 a.m. there were still 24 patients with the virus and nine suspected of having it with tests pending.
Lambton Public Health was reporting a total of 119 cases Tuesday, up one, with 21 people now recovered.
Medical Officer of Health Doctor Sudit Ranade told an 11 a.m. media briefing the latest numbers are encouraging but it's still too early to suggest the local caseload has peaked.
"To my mind, we're still in that hold your breath moment of we're ready for a surge, we hope it doesn't happen because the things [preventative actions] work, but we're still waiting to make sure," said Ranade. "So far, our local data and provincial data show that our ICU's are not overwhelmed in general, that the hospitals' continue to have capacity. It's a nice bit of information to support the idea."
Earlier in the morning, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley told Sue Storr on CHOK radio (103.9 FM, 1070 AM) that the physical distancing and other actions being taken appear to be having an impact.
"The numbers seem to have slowed down a little bit in the last few days as it relates to new cases," said Bradley. "That could change today, tomorrow, whatever but we've got to have some optimism out there that we're heading into that period that all these steps that are taken, it's always hard to try to get across to people those steps that were taken, had a significant impact on the number of cases being lower and the number of deaths being lower."
Bradley added, however, that the challenge locally and provincially, is to not ease up.
During a special sitting of the Ontario Legislature Tuesday, the provincial government extended its declaration of emergency for another 28 days to May 12.
Dr. Ranade said that's the right thing to do.
"I think that makes sense given the current context, I think if we could definitively say everything right now is working, that doesn't mean we stop it. I think it still needs to go on for a little bit longer, so that makes a lot of sense."
Overall, Mayor Bradley said the community is following the various orders and protocols.
"So, we talk about the specific issues that we've had and some people being disrespectful but in general the isolation, the distancing obviously is having an impact and the statistics and the cases are reflecting that. That's a good positive sign."
The Sarnia Police Service reported Tuesday morning that over the four-day Easter weekend there were just five calls for warnings to be issued about large gatherings and other COVID-19 bans. There were no charges laid by police officers.
Over 400 calls came into the city's information hotline over the first 12 days of April.
-With files from Sue Storr
