Middlesex-London's medical officer of health said the success of the community's vaccine campaign in long-term care and high risk retirement homes is no doubt contributing to the current downward trend in local COVID-19 deaths.
Dr. Chris Mackie made the comment during a COVID media briefing Monday, adding that by the end of the day, the health unit would be about halfway through its efforts to give second doses to residents of long-term care facilities and high risk retirement home.
"That's really where the vaccine campaign is focused right now, second doses for residents of long-term care and high risk. We also did see the Agriplex reopen today, so having that resource on hand is really a positive as well."
Operations at the Agriplex clinic were put on hold January 22 because a lack vaccine supply due to production challenges.
Dr. Mackie also discussed Monday's announcement that the provincial government will take a regional approach to reopening the economy and lifting some restrictions using the COVID-19 Response Framework.
He said they don't have a tremendous amount of detail about what will be happening in London next week.
"What we do know is that the stay-at-home order will be lifted, and that the Middlesex-London region will be moved back into the colour-coded framework -- very likely headed to orange or red depending on how case-counts are looking."
Dr. Mackie added that we need to keep an eye on the seven-day moving average, which continues to move down.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 20 new infections Monday, down from 34 on Sunday and 31 on Saturday. The latest cases bring the region’s total case count to 5,896.