The Medical Officer of Health for Windsor-Essex says it's unusual to have 18 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at one long term care facility after one day of testing.
"They're all positive in such a short period of time so we will be looking at those cases very carefully just to make sure that we're not missing anything because it is unusual to have that many positives just in one day with testings," says Dr. Wajid Ahmed.
When asked how the virus is getting into long term care facilities, he says it generally starts with a staff member.
"Many of these residents are there so there are only two ways to bring the virus in, a staff member because of their exposure outside of the facility or a resident who is maybe leaving the facility for any reason, for personal reasons or social reasons," says Dr. Ahmed.
He says the health unit is looking at ways to contain the spread of the virus.
"There are a number of ways that we are looking at to provide recommendations and maybe some of those recommendations will come from the ministry as well just to even maybe not keep these shared areas open at least for the short period of time," says Dr. Ahmed.
The local health unit is reporting five outbreaks at long-term care or retirement homes in Windsor-Essex.
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