Nurses, doctors, Community Living fine: Colby
Testing ramping up in long-term care
By Jenna Cocullo, Local Journalism Initiative
Chatham-Kent has reached 40 positive cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday afternoon, with less than half active.
Out of the last nine cases reported, seven have been individuals in their 20s, and one in their 30s and 60s respectively.
Half the cases are officially resolved, one resulted in a death, and 19 individuals are still self-isolating.
To date, 1,215 people have been tested in Chatham-Kent with 219 still pending their results.
At a press briefing, Dr. David Colby, Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health, confirmed no cases to date have been tied with doctors or nurses working on the frontline.
No new cases stemming from Community Living have been reported either. Out of the 40, nine were tied to Community Living Wallaceburg staff and four from those living in accommodations.
“The Community Living outbreaks are under control. There’s no question about that, we’ve got those all settled down,” Colby said.
In accordance with provincial orders, Chatham-Kent Public Health will be ramping up their testing at long-term care facilities, and is expecting to test 2,000 people.
“We don’t have any outbreaks in long-term care homes in Chatham Kent, and we have a very rigorous screening process, twice a day,” Colby said. “But we will comply with the provincial directive, 100 per cent.”
Colby said it will take Public Health at least a couple of weeks to accomplish the additional testing required at long-term care facilities and testing should begin within two days.
