London and Middlesex County saw a slight drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases on Monday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 20 new infections, down from 34 on Sunday and 31 on Saturday. The latest cases bring the region's total case count to 5,896.
There has not been a COVID-19 related death reported in the city or county since Friday. That leaves the death toll unchanged at 177. So far this month there have only been two COVID-19 deaths, a significant decrease from this time last month when a total of 16 deaths were reported.
Outbreaks remain at six local long-term care or retirement homes. A month long outbreak at Chelsey Park Retirement Community was declared over on Sunday.
The London Health Sciences Centre remains outbreak free, but does have 22 inpatients with COVID-19 in its care. Eight of those patients are listed in the intensive care unit. Ten hospital workers have also tested positive for the virus.
There are three active COVID-19 cases in area schools - one each at Kensal Park Public, Sir Issac Brock Public, and St. Mary's Choir and Orchestra Catholic. Students in the region are starting their second full week of in-person learning since classes resumed after the winter break. There are no current outbreaks in local elementary schools, high schools, or post secondary institutions.
Thirty-three more people have recovered locally from the virus. That brings the total number of resolved cases to 3,909. Currently, there are 1,810 known active cases in the region.
In Elgin and Oxford, there were six new COVID-19 infections reported on Monday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the two counties, said the latest cases bring the total case count to 2,389. One more death linked to the virus was recorded, increasing the death toll to 63. There are six area long-term care or retirement homes dealing with cases of the virus. The hardest hit are Maple Manor Nursing Home in Tillsonburg, PeopleCare Tavistock, and Caressant Care Retirement Home Woodstock. Maple Manor has had 85 residents and 55 staff members infected and 20 deaths. PeopleCare has recorded 47 resident and 38 staff infections and ten deaths. Fifty-one residents 18 employees at Caressant Care have contracted the virus. One person has died.
Resolved cases have increased to 2,192, leaving 134 active cases in the two counties.
Ontario’s daily case count remains below 1,500.
There were 1,265 new infections logged across the province on Monday, the third consecutive day daily cases have been under 1,500. On Sunday, 1,489 cases were recorded while Saturday saw 1,388 cases.
Toronto had the highest number of new cases of any city in the province with 421. That was followed by Peel with 256 and York Region with 130.
There have been 219 cases of the more contagious U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, and one case of the South African variant, known as B.1.351 found in the province. Ontario's first case of the Brazil variant, P.1 was confirmed Sunday by Toronto Public Health.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 279,472.
There were 33 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, 8 of which were in long-term care homes. The province’s death toll is now 6,538.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 901 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 335 are in intensive care and 226 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 258,603. There are currently 14,331 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, just 28,303 COVID-19 tests were processed. The province’s positivity rate has risen back up to 4.4 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 386,171 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.