Daily COVID-19 infections in the London region returned to double-digits Tuesday, but the overall number of active cases has remained under 100 for nearly a week.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 12 new cases on Tuesday. That is up from just five the previous day but still well below the 21 recorded on Sunday. The dozen new infections bring the region's total case count up to 6,194.
The area death toll went up by one to 183 as a previously unreported COVID-19 related death from late-January was added to the health unit's case management database. The death involved a man in his 90s who lived in long-term care. There has not been any additional deaths linked to the virus in the city or county since February 13.
There are five seniors facilities currently dealing with outbreaks of the virus.
The health unit opened online and phone booking of COVID-19 vaccination appointments for seniors 80 and over on Tuesday morning. In under two hours, all of the appointments had been filled with 5,000 seniors slated to get the shot over the next two weeks. Bookings for March 17 appointments will be taken Wednesday morning. Those eligible to get the vaccine can book an appointment by going to www.covidvaccinelm.ca or calling 226-289-3560.
There are four local schools with eight positive COVID-19 cases. Four of those cases are at Sir Arthur Carty Catholic in London, and the Thames Valley District School Board announced a new case of COVID-19 at Saunders Secondary School. No school outbreaks have been declared and all schools remain open.
Ten more people have recovered from the virus to increase the number of resolved cases to 5,913.
Known active cases in the region sit at 98. They have been below the 100 mark since last Thursday after spending three months in the triple-digits.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, three new infections were reported Tuesday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said that brings its total caseload since March of last year to 2,540. There have been no new COVID-19 deaths in the area in over a week. That leaves the death toll at 67. The only outbreak is at Aylmer Retirement Residence, where there has been one resident case and one death. Resolved cases in the region are up to 2,391. There are currently 82 known active cases in the two counties.
Ontario’s daily case count fell below 1,000 for the first time in a week.
Public health officials logged 966 new infections across the province Tuesday. That is down from 1,023 Monday and 1,062 Sunday.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases over the past 24 hours with 253, that was followed by Peel with 223, and York Region with 99.
Ontario has confirmed seven more cases of the variant first discovered in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, for a total of 542. There were zero new cases of the variant first associated with South Africa, known as B.1.351. or the variant first found in Brazil, known as P.1. That leaves the totals for those variants at 27 and three.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 302,805.
There were 11 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours. The province’s death toll is now 6,997.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 677 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 284 are in intensive care and 189 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 285,262. There are currently 10,546 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, nearly 30,800 COVID-19 tests were processed. The province’s positivity rate is roughly 2.9 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 727,021 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 264,896 people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.