The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported 23 COVID-19 outbreaks across the region Friday morning, including at four schools.
There are outbreaks at Sandwich Secondary School, Cardinal Carter Catholic Secondary School, and Al-Hijra Academy. That is in addition to the one previously declared at St. Joseph's Catholic High School, where four cases were confirmed, and a quarter of the school population may have come in contact with an active infection.
The Delta variant has been detected at all four schools, but only St. Joseph's High School is closed.
One cohort was dismissed at Cardinal Carter.
An outbreak at Berkshire Care Centre was declared on September 4, and 17 workplaces have more than two active infections.
The health unit reported 40 new cases of the virus on Friday. Of those, 12 people caught it in the community, while the same number had close contact with someone else who had tested positive. Another 16 cases remain under investigation.
There are 404 active cases in the region, 275 of which involve a variant of concern, and 16 people are currently in the hospital with COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the region's full vaccination rate is only very slowly creeping up. As of Friday, 74.7 per cent of residents 12 and older had had both doses.
