The Windsor Essex County Health Unit reported another 57 cases and one additional death on Tuesday morning.
A woman in her 70s passed away from the virus Monday, she was not a resident of a long-term care facility. She is the 84th person in the community to die from the virus.
Among the new cases announced, 11 are close contacts of previously confirmed cases, two are health care workers, and one is an agricultural worker. The health unit continues to investigate the origins of 43 of the cases.
The Greater Essex County District School Board also confirmed a case at Eastwood Public School on Monday. A letter sent home to parents said it was considered a "high risk" case.
Area hospitals are treating 37 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 10 are in the intensive care unit.
There are currently 20 active outbreaks in the community, including seven workplace outbreaks, six in long-term care homes, one community outbreak, four school outbreaks, and two hospital outbreaks.
The health unit is following 491 active cases in the community.
During Tuesday's daily news conference, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed spoke about the need to make the Windsor-Essex region a priority as the federal and provincial governments roll out the COVID-19 vaccine plans.
"We really hope that when the vaccine rolls-out, even though it would be a limited supply, there has to be some consideration for Windsor-Essex given the unique challenges and the high case-rate we've been seeing since the beginning of this pandemic," said Dr. Ahmed.
Windsor-Essex currently has the fourth-highest case rate in the province. Unique challenges include the number of agricultural workers and the high number of essential workers who cross the border on a daily basis.
"We cannot underestimate the risk of transmission of COVID-19 as a result of having a border, when we have almost 6,000 workers who cross the border every day in an area that has seen case-rates at least six to seven times higher than Windsor-Essex," said Dr. Ahmed.
On Monday, the federal government announced 249,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be in Canada by the end of next week pending approval from Health Canada.
