Another spike in COVID-19 cases for Windsor-Essex due to a new subvariant.
On Thursday afternoon, the Windsor Regional Hospital board held a meeting where Influenza, RSV and COVID-19 cases were the main topic of discussion.
The number of inpatient admissions due to Influenza jumped to 116 in November compared to 27 in October, and RSV cases in November sat at 71 compared to only 22 in October.
However for the month of December, inpatient admissions dropped for both illnesses. Influenza dropped to 79 cases, and RSV was down to 55 cases.
David Musyj, President and CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital, says COVID-19 cases for December and January have seen a spike.
He says based off Windsor-Essex Waste Water Surveillance, COVID cases have increased to heights not seen in months.
"We haven't seen this height since the months of April and May. It shows a little dip there, but is that a temporary dip and it's just going to bounce straight back up? We'll have to see. They have not done the genome break down to see what sub-variants or variants this is, that's still happening."
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Windsor Regional Hospital Board
Dr. Wassim Saad, Windsor Regional Hospital's Chief of Staff, says this spike is due to the new Omicron subvariant called XBB.1.5, or nicknamed 'Kraken'.
He says cases for those testing positive for the new subvariant have risen to incredibly high numbers in the United States.
"At the beginning of December in the United States, this represented less than 0.1 per cent of all infections, the week before Christmas is was up to 20 per cent, at the end of December it was up to 45 per cent, and the northeast, including Michigan, it was accounting for up to 75 per cent of all infections."
He says due to such high rates of infection for the new subvariant in the U.S., Windsor will be heavily impacted.
"And we do know in Windsor being a border city that we are going to be one of the first areas in Canada to see a variant like this enter our community. And I don't think there's any question that it is already in our community."
Dr. Saad says as long as the community is keeping up on vaccinations, especially for the new variant, and continue to wear a mask, Windsor can avoid a wave of XBB.1.5.
"The antiviral's that we have, the vaccinations, the masking, are still going to be effective in helping us protect against a major wave. We know that these variants are going to come up and that's been the pattern since the beginning. And there's going to be waves of infection as we go through this but this does not necessarily need to translate or mean that it's going to translate into waves of death."
The number of Emergency Department due to respiratory visits have also dropped from 806 visits in November to 670 in December.
As of Wednesday, January 4, all 16 beds in the Paediatric Unit at the hospital's Met Campus were occupied, however only four of those patients are receiving care due to respiratory issues, a mix of Influenza and RSV.
As of Thursday, January 5, a total of 19 people have been in alternative level of care waiting for a long term care bed compared to 33 from September.