The Windsor Essex County Health Unit reports the case doubling rate of COVID-19 in the region continues to dip.
"Now we are doubling at a rate of more than three days, a slight improvement again," said Dr. Wajid Ahmed, medical officer of health. "But I would caution everyone not to read too much into it because we still need to see a continuing trend for a long period of time before we can comment on these numbers more confidently."
As of Friday morning, there were 12 new cases in the region for a total of 439. Three more people have died from the disease since Thursday. Two people in their 80s and one in their 70s died after contracting the virus while in a long-term care facility.
Dr. Ahmed said the case counts show that the majority of the new cases in the region are linked to long-term care homes and the number of new cases in the wider community continues to decline.
As more people are being tested every day, only five per cent of the tests are coming back positive. Of the positive cases, 26 per cent are community-acquired, meaning the person did not come in contact with a known positive case before contracting the virus.
There are now 568 people waiting for their test results. There is now an online portal on the health unit's website where people who have been tested can check their results. The health unit is continuing to follow up with all positive cases. However, officials admit it is getting harder to contact all of the negative cases in a timely manner.
"We will follow up with all the positive cases in the community, that is part of the case and contact management, not only just the cases anyone who they have come in contact with. This is just to expedite the process," said Ahmed. "If you are not hearing from us you can go online and check out yourself to see if your result has already been reported."
If you have been tested for COVID-19 at one of the local assessment centres you can use the online portal to check your results using your health card.
