53 COVID-19 deaths reported in Windsor-Essex in January: WECHU

53 COVID-related deaths this month The health unit has reported 53 people have died related to COVID in Windsor-Essex this month. CTV Windsor’s Sanjay Maru with more.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is reporting 53 COVID-19 deaths in the month of January, which is much higher than previous months.

Acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai said Monday that in December there were 24 deaths and in November there were eight.

“The deaths in the month in January are approximately eight times greater than the deaths attributed to COVID in November,” said Nesathurai.

The death toll related to COVID-19 in the region is at 548 people since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Monday, the health unit reported an increase of five deaths since Jan. 28:

“We continue to follow the data and as we continue to move forward with the changes in public health measures, we continue to monitor the impact based on the metrics,” said Nesathurai.

Nesathurai said he doesn’t currently have the statistics available for the breakdown of people who were vaccinated or unvaccinated, but the health unit is looking into getting those numbers.

“We know the risk of dying is much greater if you are unvaccinated than if you are vaccinated,” said Nesathurai.

On Dec. 9, 2021, the health unit reported that since August, there were been 42 deaths related to COVID - 30 were unvaccinated people and 12 were vaccinated.