2nd dose appointments opening up ahead of schedule for 70-plus in Windsor-Essex

As of Saturday morning, more Windsor-Essex residents will be able to book an appointment for their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed saidthat starting at 8 a.m., anyone who received their vaccine before the end of March, or anyone 70 and older who is eligible for another dose, will be allowedto book their second appointment.

The expansion of second-dose eligibilityis occurring ahead of a previous schedule setby the province.

The provincial government initially had said that those 70 and up could be eligible to book their second shotas of June 14, but announced on Friday that for areas that use the provincial vaccination booking system, anyone turning 70 in 2021 or olderwill be able to book as of Monday, along withanyone who got their first shoton or beforeApril 18.

In Windsor-Essex, the health unit is going with March 31 instead of April 18,given the size of the populationthat was vaccinated within that window, Ahmed explained. Appointments can be booked via WEvax.ca

At a briefing broadcast live on YouTube Friday, Ahmed presented his weekly epidemiological report, a snapshot of the region's pandemic and vaccination data.

It showed a sharpdecline in COVID-19 case rates compared with last week.

Declining case rate

For the previous seven-day period, there was a local COVID-19incidencerate of 34.5 cases per 100,000 people. That's down from 46.8 for the previous period.

"[In the] last week we have seen some improvement and our cases are actually going down," Ahmedsaid.

As of Friday's update,162 cases of COVID-19 are active, about 57 per cent of which involve themore contagious variants of concern.

16 new cases Friday

There wasa day-over-day increase of16 COVID-19 cases reportedon Friday.

Of those additional cases, eight are close contacts of confirmed cases, seven are considered community spread, meaning the transmission source isn't known, and one is under investigation still.

Thirteenpeople are currently hospitalizedwithCOVID-19locally, including five in intensive care.

So far,256,079people havereceived at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is 58.5 per cent of the population, including youth.

A fraction of that number 35,884 people or 8.2 per cent of the population have gotten both requireddoses.

There are sevenoutbreaks, including one that has been active at theSouthwest Detention Centre since April.

The remainder of the outbreaks are at workplaces:

• One in Kingsville's agriculture sector.
• Twoin Windsor's health-care and social assistance sector.
• One in Lakeshore's health-care and social assistance sector.
• One in Tecumseh's manufacturing sector.
• One in Windsor's food and beverage sector.

Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton

Chatham-Kent Public Health reportedthree new COVID-19 cases Friday,and the number of active cases is at 17, remainingunchanged from Thursday.

In Sarnia-Lambton, there were nine new cases. The region's active case total remained at35.