Windsor-Essex can expect a shift in how the local health unit releases COVID-19 information.
Acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai says he is concerned with the increased amount of cases in the region but says case counts are probably not the best metric to evaluate the burden of disease in the community.
"We'll have to think as we go through the pandemic of other metrics, we may think more prominently like the number of deaths, the number of people hospitalized and the number of people in the Intensive Care Unit," says Dr. Nesathurai.
He says at this point in the pandemic, testing capacity is being diminished.
"I think that we'll wait for provincial guidance on this item but with diminished testing, we're also going to have less ability or no ability to call outbreaks," he says. "It doesn't mean that there aren't outbreaks in the community but the ability to arbitrate them or make determinations about them maybe more challenging."
Since last Thursday, there have been 993 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Windsor-Essex.
The health unit says 17 people are in hospital with seven in the ICU.