Respiratory virus season is among us.
Windsor Regional Hospital states that while cases are extremely low at this time, they are starting to see cases of COVID-19, Influenza, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus - or RSV.
During the most recent hospital board meeting, Karen Riddell, acting president and CEO at the hospital, states that at this time there is one RSV case, one flu case, and three COVID cases.
While these numbers are low, Riddell says they have been planning for the surge season and have been working with Ontario Health to try and keep respiratory virus cases low in the community.
Riddell adds that prevention is key, and that the hospital will start seeing flu and COVID vaccines being delivered within the next couple of weeks.
She says they have been preparing since the summer.
"There's an overall provincial plan for surge, and then each hospital and agency has an overall surge plan. So, we always have a plan for increasing our capacity to 120 per cent or greater for surge season."
Riddell says they are waiting for the arrival of the vaccines now.
"And once we receive the vaccine we'll be launching both our employee and our high-risk patient population vaccination program, and typically the hospitals and long-term care facilities will receive the vaccines first and then they usually show up in the community - from a volume perspective - in the week or two after that."
She adds that they also continue to monitor the measles situation closely.
"We do expect because there were so many cases circulating in the community previously, we expect that we might see a bit of a bump up again in the fall. Again, with people being back inside in more close conditions that we could see some potential spread."
In Ontario, respiratory season typically sees the highest numbers between November and April.
Riddell says visitor restrictions that were put in place due to the measles outbreak remains in effect at the hospital for those under the age of 16-years-old.
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit's website states there hasn't been a confirmed measles case locally since July.