The London region logged a double-digit jump in new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day on Thursday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said ten more people tested positive for the virus over the last 24 hours. That comes after an 11 case increase on Wednesday and a 10 case spike on Tuesday. London and Middlesex County have not recorded daily double-digit case increases over this many consecutive days since mid-April. There were 17 cases reported each day on April 19 and April 20 and 11 cases on April 21.
Among the latest cases is a person at École élémentaire La Pommeraie, a school within the area's French board Conseil Scolaire Viamonde. Just like a case at Saunders Secondary reported Wednesday, this individual was at the school while infectious, the health unit said. Close contacts of the infected person have been notified and advised to quarantine for 14 days.
"We have not determined if there is a link to the previous case reported at the school earlier this week,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie. “Given that it has been almost two weeks since this new case would have been infectious, it is encouraging that we have not had more reports of symptoms in members of the school community. We will be able to make a more complete determination as the investigation develops.”
With Thursday's additional cases, the region's total case count has risen to 932. Ten more infected people have recovered from the virus, bringing the area's number of resolved cases up to 811.
The death toll remains at 57 with no additional COVID linked deaths in the area since June 12.
A new outbreak of COVID-19 has been declared at Peoplecare Oak Crossing. Ongoing outbreaks also remain at Earls Court Village, Mount Hope Centre for Long-Term Care, Meadow Park Care Centre, and Country Terrace.
The health unit urged Londoners on Thursday to limit Thanksgiving gatherings to people living in their household and to avoid travel to COVID-19 hotspots in Ontario and Quebec.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there are now only two active cases. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit which oversees the two counties, reported no new COVID-19 cases Thursday, leaving the total case count unchanged at 273. Of those, 266 have been resolved and five people have died.
Ontario broke a testing record Thursday, but also a record for the highest daily case count since the pandemic began.
Public health officials reported 797 new infections over the last 24 hours. That is a significant increase over Wednesday's 583 new cases. It also breaks the previous record high number of new infections set on October 2, when 732 cases were confirmed.
The bulk of the new cases are located in Toronto, Peel, York and the nation’s capital. Toronto logged 265 new cases, Ottawa recorded 182, Peel had 134, and York Region reported 78.
Of the new cases, 57 per cent are in people under the age of 40.
Ontario’s total case count is now 56,742.
There were four additional death reported since Wednesday, bringing the province’s death toll up to 2,992.
Recoveries are up by 695 and now stand at 48,308.
Currently, 206 infected Ontarians are in hospital receiving treatment, with 47 in the intensive care unit.
Over the last 24 hour period, the province conducted nearly 48,500 additional COVID-19 tests, the largest number it has completed in a single day during the pandemic.