High risk COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Windsor-Essex.
According to the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, the region saw a 13.1 per cent increase the week of March 21 to March 27 compared to the previous week.
The health unit says the high risk case rate is 131.4 cases per 100,000 population.
Acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says at this time they continue to monitor the burden of disease in the community, but there are no plans to implement any further measures.
"My preference would be that if we are going to formulate additional policies or additional public health measures is that it would happen at a provincial level or a regional level. As of today we're not contemplating any specific directives."
With that being said, Dr. Nesathurai's recommendation to the community is to continue with many of the public health measures even though they may not be mandated.
"I would still recommend that people wear a mask indoors, wear a mask when you can't remain consistently two meters away from somebody else, to minimize the amount of social gatherings, stay home if you're sick, and get vaccinated," he continued. "Those are still are recommendations at the health district and I'm hopeful that we won't see even greater increased disease."
Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says the facts are that we seeing increase disease burden in the community right now.
"And hopefully it won't saturate or exhaust the resources we have within the community to manage COVID-19. I am also concerned about the burden of death, as we had three deaths last week," he stated.
For the week ending on March 27 the number of in-patient hospitalizations increased for Windsor-Essex County, and in Ontario.
Another key tool in protection from COVID-19 according to Dr. Nesathurai is booster coverage, and Windsor-Essex County has an overall third dose coverage rate of 50.8% for residents 12 years and older.