UPDATE: Four more cases reported, active cases at 16

Tara Jeffrey Lambton Public Health is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 for Sarnia-Lambton, bringing the number of active cases up to 16.

Tara Jeffrey

Lambton Public Health is reporting four new cases of COVID-19 for Sarnia-Lambton, bringing the number of active cases up to 16.

The data, posted late Sunday to the health unit’s website, listed no new recoveries (295), with a total of 336 infected since the region’s first cases were reported in March.

An outbreak of the virus declared last week, involving four cases linked to a Sarnia-Lambton workplace, has ended, according to the health unit.

Workplace outbreaks are declared when two or more employees test positive for COVID-19 within a reasonable timeline to suspect transmission in the workplace, the health unit states.

Workplaces will only be named if “public notification will help to identify additional close contacts that cannot be determined through contact tracing,” the health unit said.

Locally, a total of 20,734 tests results have been processed since the pandemic began, and 25 people have died.

Bluewater Health currently has no COVID-19 patients, and no one has been treated at the hospital or tested positive for the virus there since mid-June. As of Monday, 15 patients were in hospital with tests pending for COVID-19 (includes pre-surgical screening).

Currently, nine of Lambton County’s 11 municipalities have no mask mandate — the last in Ontario without some sort of mask bylaw or order from the health unit.

Last week, the Town of Petrolia joined the City of Sarnia in passing a mandatory mask bylaw for indoor, public spaces, along with neighbouring Chatham-Kent. Plympton-Wyoming voted against mandating masks last week.

Ontario recorded 99 new cases Monday, up from 81 on Sunday.

Public health safety measures include staying home when sick, practicing physical distancing with others outside your social circle, use good hand hygiene, and wearing a mask if required or if physical distancing is not possible.