Recent death not linked to COVID-19, active cases in Chatham-Kent at 36

The recent death of a Chatham-Kent resident is no longer linked to COVID-19, public health officials say.

“You will notice a reduction in the number of local deaths in Chatham-Kent due to COVID-19 reducing from four to three,” CK Public Health officials posted on social media on Thursday, December 3, 2020.

“This is a result of us receiving more information from another jurisdiction.”

Jeff Moco, a spokesperson for CK Public Health, told the Sydenham Current that the information they received “changed the situation” and how the recently announced death was classified.

“In addition, we tried to better explain some criteria over what’s labeled as a death as well,” Moco added.

The number of deaths, listed on the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit’s ‘current situation’ page, include cases where COVID-19 was the immediate cause of death or directly related to the immediate cause of death, CK Public Health officials say.

People with COVID-19 who have died from non-COVID-related causes are captured in the ‘resolved’ category at the top of the ‘current situation’ page, CK Public Health officials added.

The Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit updated their ‘current situation’ page, which provides a summary of COVID-19 cases and testing in Chatham-Kent, on Thursday, December 3, 2020.

The active COVID-19 case count across Chatham-Kent has risen to 36 and the total number of cases has risen to 518.

An outbreak was declared at Riverview Gardens on Tuesday as well.

This is the first outbreak in a local long-term care facility in Chatham-Kent since the pandemic began in March.

Public health officials say a staff member is in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.

Dr. David Colby, Medical Officer of Health in Chatham-Kent, said Riverview Gardens has implemented outbreak management protocols, and all residents and staff have been notified.

25 of the active cases are linked to close contact, eight cases have information pending, one is linked to the institutional outbreak at Riverview Gardens, one is unknown and one is linked to an institutional outbreak outside of Chatham-Kent.

CK Public Health officials say no one is currently hospitalized with COVID-19 from Chatham-Kent.

To date, 479 people have recovered from the virus in Chatham-Kent, while three people have died.

A total of 45,747 tests for the virus have been completed to date.

The Province of Ontario announced on Friday, November 20, 2020 that the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit would be moving in the ‘Yellow-Protect’ tier of the ‘Keeping Ontario Safe and Open’ framework on Monday, November 23.

On Friday, November 27, 2020, the Province announced Chatham-Kent would remain at the same level for the time being.

Public health officials are encouraging people to continue following these public health measures:

More details about the ‘Yellow-Protect’ tier can be found, here.

To view the full ‘current situation’ page from CK Public Health, click here.

For more information about COVID-19, residents are asked to visit
http://www.ckpublichealth.com/covid19 or call the CK Public Health COVID-19 intake line at 519-355-1071 ex. 1900.

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