COVID-19 has claimed another life in Chatham-Kent.
Chatham-Kent Health Alliance CEO Lori Marshall announced Thursday morning during a weekly teleconference that a COVID-19 patient died in the hospital that morning. Chatham-Kent Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby told reporters the 91-year-old man was from Chatham-Kent and was living at home before he got sick.
The man's death was not included the health unit's Thursday morning COVID-19 report because the death had just happened. It will be included in Friday's report. The latest death brings the total number of people dying from COVID-19 to four in Chatham-Kent.
The local health unit reported 14 new cases and nine resolved cases on Thursday to add five more cases to the active count. The number of active cases is now 124. The number of outbreaks in Chatham-Kent also went up by one to a total of 12 - eight in workplaces, two in institutions, and two more in congregate living settings.
Dr. Colby also confirmed there are three workers infected at an unnamed big box store locally and the cases were not connected to each other. He said he didn't declare an outbreak because those workers are believed to have caught the virus outside of work and brought it to the store.
Later on Thursday, Jeff Moco with the CK Public Health communications team confirmed the employees worked at the Walmart on McNaughton Avenue in Wallaceburg. Moco said he's trying to get more information about a fourth employee at the Walmart who tested positive for the virus. Colby said the investigation continues but everybody affected has been contacted by public health officials and nobody from the public was affected. The doctor said he would have declared an outbreak at the store if the outbreak was out of control or if there was any health risk to the public.
"I would have no hesitation to close anything that poses a hazard to the general public," Colby said.
There is also another local person in the hospital with the virus. CKHA said there are now nine COVID-19 patients in the hospital and six are Chatham-Kent residents. Two are in the Intensive Care Unit and one of them is on a ventilator.
Marshall said it's the most COVID-19 cases at CKHA at any one time since the start of the pandemic 10 months ago and she thanks her staff for being so flexible and dealing with the stress.
Marshall said the Critical Care and Progressive Care Units at CKHA are 100 per cent full but there are some regular medical beds available as the overall occupancy at the hospital is 74 per cent.
"Working in health care right now is a very stressful time and we are thankful to the community for the actions that they may take to help us out," said Marshall.
