St. Clair County, MI — Lambton County, Ontario
Cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases as of November 19, 2020 at 9:00 AM are as follows:
- State of Michigan: 277,806 confirmed cases; 8,190 deaths
- St. Clair County: 2,850 confirmed cases; 71 deaths
- Ontario: 98,162 confirmed cases; 3,415 deaths
- Sarnia-Lambton: 392 confirmed cases; 25 deaths
As of 11/19/2020, St. Clair County had 1,831 active cases of the virus, and 19% of hospital beds in the county were being used for COVID-19 patients. This brings total hospitalizations in the county to 235 since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in our area.
As the state of Michigan moved into the Pause & Protect mandate for the next 3 weeks, residents have been concerned about COVID-19 outbreaks in schools and businesses. According to the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the definition of an outbreak is 2 or more lab confirmed cases within a 14-day period. The cases need to be epidemiologically linked, which means the health department should verify that the cases are present in the same setting during the same time period and there is no more likely sources of exposure outside the setting where the person could’ve been exposed.
Although the threshold for declaring an outbreak is two cases, the health department may define it as one case if they believe there is community transmission of the virus. In both Michigan and Sarnia Lambton, outbreaks have been declared in schools and nursing homes where only one case of the virus was confirmed.
According to the State of Michigan’s Coronavirus website, the institutions with the highest number of coronavirus cases are colleges, with Michigan State topping the list with 1882 reported cases in the last 28 days as of 11/16/2020.
Information about outbreaks in schools is available <HERE> and other public places is available <HERE>.
Lambton County currently has 10 active cases. The highest number of COVID-19 cases reported for a single day in Lambton County was 15 on July 31, 2020. Reported cases have been less than 10 per day since then.
Please continue to rely on reputable sources for information on COVID-19:
- Centers for Disease Control: cdc.gov/coronavirus
- State of Michigan: Michigan.gov/coronavirus or Info Hotline 1-888-535-6136 Daily 8:00 am – 5:00 pm or email questions to COVID19@michigan.gov
- St. Clair County Health Department: COVID-19 Info Hotline (810) 966-4163 Mon – Fri, 8:00 am – 4:30 pm or email questions to covid19@stclaircounty.org
- St. Clair County Community Mental Health COVID-19 Support Line (810) 985-8900, available Monday-Friday, 8:30am – 4:30pm
- Lambton Public Health: https://lambtonpublichealth.ca/2019-novel-coronavirus/
- City of Sarnia COVID-19 Hotline: 1-877-4-SARNIA (1-877-472-7642)
Reporting for WGRT – Jessie Wiegand
