The Windsor-Essex County Health unit is marking a grim COVID-19 milestone.
With an additional 35 new cases of the virus being reported on Tuesday, the region has now topped 2,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
There are now a total of 2,017 confirmed cases with 1,311 of the cases resolved and 69 eaths.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed says he never expected the region to have this many cases.
"Honest answer no,” he says. “In fact when the pandemic started we felt that we may see a few cases and it won't spread across the globe the way it spread.”
Dr. Ahmed says the region needs to continue to follow all safety measures that have been put in place to help reduce the transmission of the virus.
"I think we have done a great job living right next to a state that has seen one of the hot spots in the United States so I think our community has done a good job," says Dr. Ahmed.
He says the community needs to continue to work together for the safety and well being of everyone.
"The focus right now is ensuring that we follow some of these measures," says Dr. Ahmed. "As difficult as it is to continue to take all these precautions but I think as a community it is important for us and it is responsibility for all of us.
Of the 35 new cases reported on Tuesday, 15 are still under investigation, nine are in the community, eight are workers in the agri-farm sector and three healthcare workers working in Windsor-Essex.
There are eight people with the virus currently in hospital, five of them in the Intensive Care Unit.
— With files from AM800's Kristylee Varley