Two more London-area long-term care home residents have died from COVID-19.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said Friday both were women, one in her 90s and the other in her 70s. January has been the region's deadliest month with 73 COVID-19 related deaths reported. The local death toll since the start of the pandemic has risen to 175.
Public health officials logged 44 new infections Friday, the sixth consecutive day daily cases have been below 50. The total case count for London and Middlesex County is now 5,613.
The London Health Sciences Centre continues to deal with an outbreak of the virus in the adult emergency department at University Hospital. There have been no new cases lined to the outbreak since mid-week. In total, ten staff members and zero patients have tested positive. The hospital has 17 inpatients with COVID-19, eight of whom are in the intensive care unit.
An outbreak at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital was declared over on Thursday, the health unit said.
There are 11 local long-term care and retirement facilities with outbreaks. The latest was declared at Kensington Village Retirement Home on Huron Street in London on Wednesday.
Twelve more people recovered from the virus over the past 24 hours, increasing the total resolved cases to 3,783. Currently, there are 1,655 known active cases in the region.
In Elgin and Oxford, there were 11 new COVID-19 infections recorded Friday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the two counties, said the latest cases bring the total case count to 2,275. The death toll is unchanged at 56, with zero additional deaths reported since Tuesday. There are 11 area long-term care or retirement homes dealing with cases of the virus. Cases among residents at Caressant Care Retirement Home Woodstock have climbed to 35. Six employees have also contracted the virus since the outbreak was declared last Thursday.
With resolved cases now sitting at 2,037, there are 182 active cases in the two counties.
Provincially, the number of new COVID-19 cases slid back under 2,000 following a one day rise.
There were 1,837 infections logged across the province on Friday, down from 2,093 the previous day.
Toronto had the highest number of new infections of any city in the province with 595. Peel recorded 295, and York Region had 170.
There have been 51 cases of the more contagious variant found in the province, public health officials noted.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 264,300.
Fifty-eight deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, 32 of which were in long-term care homes. The province’s death toll is now 6,072.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 1,291 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 360 are in intensive care and 271 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 237,871. There are currently 23,620 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 69,040 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario did not provide its current positivity rate on Friday.
The province has administered 327,455 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of 8 p.m. Thursday. A total of 61,679 people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.