A woman is given a nasal swab test for COVID-19. File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / dolgachovA woman is given a nasal swab test for COVID-19. File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / dolgachov
London

20 new COVID-19 cases in Middlesex London

Daily COVID-19 cases in the London region shot up to a level not seen in the past ten days.

The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 20 new infections on Tuesday, up from five one day earlier. The region has not had a day with this many new cases since February 13, when 30 infections were recorded. That was also the last day the area had a COVID-19 related death.

The region's total caseload to date is 6,118 with 181 deaths.

Recoveries rose by 16 over the past 24 hours to 5,830. Currently, there are 107 known active cases in the region.

An outbreak at Middlesex Terrace, a long-term care home in Delaware, that was declared in December has finally been resolved. That leaves just five local seniors facilities with outbreaks.

Public health officials are also monitoring outbreaks at three schools - St. Anne’s Catholic school, Clara Brenton public school, and Caradoc North public - and London preschool Pinetree Montessori School.

The Thames Valley District school board also reported a second case of COVID-19 at Northbrae public school. The school board previously announced a positive case at the school on Monday. An outbreak has not been declared and the school remains open.

The London Health Sciences Centre currently has just 11 COVID-19 patients in its care, down from 13 on Monday. Fewer than five of the patients are in intensive care.

Southwestern Public Health recorded six new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths on Tuesday. That puts Elgin and Oxford counties’ total number of cases up to 2,463 and leaves the death toll at 67. Resolved cases rose to 2,361, leaving 67 active cases between the two counties. There are three long-term care or retirement homes dealing with ongoing outbreaks. The three homes in St. Thomas, Aylmer, and Woodstock have seen a combined 79 resident and staff cases and four deaths.

Daily case numbers in Ontario have fallen back below 1,000 for the first time in nearly a week.

According public health officials, 975 new infections were confirmed on Tuesday. That is down from 1,058 on Monday, 1,087 on Sunday, and 1,228 on Saturday.

Regions with the highest case counts were Toronto with 343, followed by Peel and York Region with 186 and 89 cases.

The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario has had a total of 390 cases of the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7. There have been nine confirmed cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351 and one case of the Brazil variant, P.1.

The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 295,119.

Twelve deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, up from 11 on Monday. The province’s death toll is now 6,884.

Ontario’s hospitals are currently dealing with 718 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 283 are in intensive care and 186 are on ventilators.

Resolved cases across the province are up to 277,939. That leaves 10,296 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.

In the last 24 hour period, just 25,979 COVID-19 tests were processed, down from 31,163 the previous day. Ontario’s current positivity rate is 4.2 per cent.

The province has administered 585,707 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday night. A total of 247,042 people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.

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