The active COVID-19 case count sits at 31 across Chatham-Kent.
Meanwhile, the Province of Ontario has delivered more social services relief funding to protect the vulnerable.
Current status in Chatham-Kent
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 Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
The total number of cases has increased to 557.
A long-term care outbreak, which was declared at Riverview Gardens on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, remains active.
23 of the active cases are linked to close contact, four are unknown, one case has information pending, one is linked to travel, one is linked to the outbreak at Riverview Gardens and one is linked to a workplace outbreak.
CK Public Health officials say no one from Chatham-Kent is currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
To date, 523 people have recovered from the virus in Chatham-Kent, while three people have died.
A total of 47,792 tests for the virus have been completed to date.
The Municipality of Chatham-Kent remains in the ‘Yellow-Protect’ tier of the Province of Ontario’s Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework, Provincial officials announced on Friday, December 11, 2020.
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.
Province delivers more social services relief funding
The Ontario government is allocating an additional $120-million to help municipalities and Indigenous community partners protect the health and safety of vulnerable people during COVID-19.
This investment builds upon the second phase of social services relief funding announced this fall and brings the government’s total allocation to $510-million, Provincial officials say.
“Our government is responding to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic by targeting $120-million of the Social Services Relief Fund to where it is needed most,” stated Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in a media release.
“This additional funding will help our community partners respond to local housing pressures and help vulnerable Ontarians find – and keep – the housing they need.”
Municipalities and Indigenous community partners can use the discretionary funding to improve the delivery of critical services, protect homeless shelter staff and residents, renovate and purchase facilities to create longer-term housing solutions, add to rent banks and support plans to prepare for potential future outbreaks and/or emergencies, Provincial officials say.
The Social Services Relief Fund is part of the up to $4-billion being provided to Ontario municipalities under the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.
The Agreement will help municipalities protect the health and well-being of the people of Ontario while delivering critical public services, such as public transit and shelters, as the province continues down the path of economic recovery.
