Point Edward, ON – Effective Wednesday, February 23, Lambton Public Health (LPH) is updating its online COVID-19 Surveillance Report in response to recent changes in COVID-19 testing eligibility. The frequency of reports will be updated each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning before 10:00 a.m.
In late December, the Ontario Government announced that eligibility for publicly funded Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing would be limited to those in contact with high-risk settings, such long-term care homes and hospitals. As a result, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to public health will underestimate the true number of people with COVID-19 in Lambton County. To account for this significant change, LPH is updating how cases of COVID-19 are reported.
Additional changes to the public COVID-19 Surveillance Report on LPH’s website include:
- Discontinued reporting of cases by age, sex, geography, and source of acquisition, as newly reported cases only represent a small segment of the population.
- Discontinued reporting of whether cases are active or resolved, as this no longer reflects the true number of active and resolved cases in the community. These indicators will be replaced with: the number of new cases since LPH’s last report, and the average number of cases per day over the last 7 days.
- Discontinued reporting of cases per 100,000, as case rates no longer reflect the rate among the whole population.
- Discontinued reporting of variant of concern lineage, as Omicron is the dominant variant and only a small number of PCR tests will be screened for Omicron.
- Outbreak reporting will be limited to active outbreaks in congregate living settings.
- Addition of the number of fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccine given to Lambton County residents.
- Addition of a glossary that defines key terms used in the report.
Other public health units have recently made similar changes to their COVID-19 case reporting in response to the new testing eligibility criteria.
Due to the statutory holiday Monday, February 21 no surveillance report will be posted on that day but will be updated the following day. The new COVID-19 Surveillance Report will be posted starting Wednesday, February 23, please visit Lambton County COVID-19 Surveillance Report. The previous version of this report will be archived on the LPH website.
For the latest updates on Lambton County’s COVID-19 Immunization Rollout or to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment please visit GetTheVaccine.ca. Lambton Public Health is also available to assist from Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 519-383-8331.
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