WINDSOR — A London lab should help reduce the waiting period to get results for local residents who have been tested for COVID-19.
That's according to the Windsor-Essex County Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed, who says it won't necessarily mean more people will be tested, but rather the results should come in sooner.
"If I'm a healthy individual and if I'm just concerned if I want to be tested, probably not," he says. "If I am sick and it is something that I haven't experienced before, maybe some of those individuals maybe considered."
Right now, it is taking seven days to get results and people who have been tested are in self-isolation.
Dr. Ahmed expects it will take one to two days to get results once the lab starts taking Windsor samples.
As of Monday morning, there are two positive cases in Windsor-Essex, 383 people have been tested and 264 results are still pending.
Dr. Ahmed says both individuals in Windsor-Essex who have the coronavirus, are doing well.
"Both of the cases are recovering well in their homes and in self-isolation," says Dr. Ahmed. "All the close contacts of these cases are identified and are following the public health measure of self-isolation as per public health case and contact management guidelines."
Dr. Ahmed stresses, people in self-isolation do not leave their home.
"Self isolation means you do not go to work, you do not go outside your home, you do not go for groceries, you do not have any visitors inside your home," he says. "Anyone who is self-isolating and is concerned about groceries and supplies, please look at options available for home delivery or have your friends or family deliver that to your door without letting them in."
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is expected to announce at 11am a stay-at-home order for Michigan residents. Dr. Ahmed says so far, that is being "recommended" in Windsor, not an order.
"We are assessing the risk to our community very closely and given that the cases that we have in our community are well contained and have followed all the self-isolation measures, we don't have a wide-spread community transmission at this state, we only have two cases," he says.
In Michigan, there are 1035 cases including 325 in Detroit.