The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Sarnia-Lambton continues to climb but no further deaths were reported as of Tuesday morning.
Lambton Public Health updated its numbers at 9 a.m. March 31, reporting on its website that the number of cases has risen by 11 to 39, with four deaths.
Local health authorities said Monday that three of the four deaths are residents from Sarnia's Landmark Village retirement home.
During a teleconference media briefing at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Lambton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade said there's been a couple of cases confirmed in the lower age groups.
"There was one case identified as somebody in their 30s and once case identified as somebody in their 20s," said Ranade. "The younger folks in this that we're investigating, it's still early in the process, but what we understand is that one is connected in back through that original travel group that I had talked about the other day, and one is connected to the facility that we've been discussing."
He said they're still investigating the source of the outbreak at Landmark Village Retirement, and have made some recommendations for containment at the facility.
"Remember that it's a retirement home, so the characteristics of a retirement home are that people live in their own independent units but they congregate in areas for some particular services or needs like dining. So, all of the congregation pieces have been eliminated in terms of people eating together. Meals are being delivered to their rooms and they are asked to isolate within their self-contained apartment dwelling," he said.
Bluewater Health reported on its website Tuesday morning that there are 17 patients in hospital confirmed to have the virus, and 16 suspected of having it pending test results.
There have been 105 hospital test results to date with 53 negative and 23 positive results.
