The crunch of hospitalizations involving COVID-19 patients is easing in Windsor-Essex.
A check of the three Windsor-Essex hospital systems on Monday afternoon showed a total of 72 patients admitted for COVID-19.
There were 96 patients hospitalized as of Saturday, according to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. This was the first time since the second week of January that the number was below 100.
At last check, Windsor Regional Hospital had 54 patients and of those, 36 had COVID-19 as the main complaint. Of Windsor Regional's patient load, 32 were fully vaccinated, and the rest were either not or partially vaccinated. Ten of those patients are in the ICU, seven not vaccinated.
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare reported only four COVID-19 patients in its care Monday, all of them fully vaccinated.
At Erie Shores Healthcare, a total of 14 patients were admitted, with eight of them in hospital primarily for COVID-19. Eight of the 14 patients are not vaccinated.
Since Saturday, the health unit reported a total of 432 new COVID-19 cases in Windsor-Essex, 181 on Saturday, 148 Sunday, and 103 Monday.
Five patients have died since Saturday, a woman in her 60s from the community, a man in his 70s living in long-term care, two women in their 80s from the community, and one man in his 100s in long-term care. The local death toll now sits at 548.
The active caseload in Windsor-Essex is at 1,268.
The health unit is also monitoring 77 active outbreaks. There were 26 each in the community and long-term care. There were 15 in workplaces, and ten in hospitals.
