The Middlesex London Health Unit reported another significant surge of COVID-19 cases for a second straight day.
Public health officials said there were 84 new infections logged in the London region on Thursday. While the latest numbers are down from the previous day's 97 new cases, they do mark the second consecutive day of daily case loads above 50. More than half of Thursday's cases are among people under the age of 30.
Two more variants of concern have been confirmed through additional laboratory testing for a total of eight in the area. Another 206 have screened positive for the variant.
The region's total case count since the start of the pandemic is 7,176. There were no additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, leaving the death toll unchanged at 188. Between last Saturday and Wednesday, there were three more deaths reported for a total of five during the month of March.
Recoveries rose by 26 for a total of 6,424 resolved cases. Currently, there are 564 active cases in the region.
Outbreaks remain at Parkwood Institute Mental Health Care Building, Henley Place and Kensington Village and at three local schools. The latest school to declare an outbreak is Ekcoe Central Public in Glencoe.
The Thames Valley district school board also reported new cases of the virus at two more public schools. Masonville and Glen Cairn in London were added to the growing number of schools with COVID-19 cases on Friday.
With four of its residences reporting outbreaks, Western University has announced it is moving the majority of in-person classes and final exams online as of Monday. Elgin Hall, Ontario Hall, Saugeen-Maitland Hall, and Medway-Sydenham Hall have reported outbreaks. The university is now encouraging all students who live on campus to move out as soon as possible.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 21 patients with COVID-19 in its care, with fewer than five of them listed in intensive care. There are ten hospital workers who have tested positive for the virus.
The effort to get the vaccine into the arms of London-area residents is expanding. The province has authorized three pharmacies in London, two in St. Thomas, two in Ingersoll, and one in Woodstock to begin administering the Astra-Zeneca shot to people 55 and older. The pharmacies will begin offering the vaccine as of Saturday. Appointments can be booked through participating pharmacies. To find a participating pharmacy go to covid-19.ontario.ca/vaccine-locations.
There was a drop in new cases reported Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties. Southwestern Public Health reported eight new infections, down from 18 the previous day. The latest numbers bring the region's total case count to 2,835. There has not been a COVID-19 related death in the two counties in nearly a week, leaving the death toll at 69. Resolved cases in the region have increased to 2,676, leaving 90 cases active. There are no current outbreaks in local long-term care or retirement homes. One school - Central Public School in Woodstock - has been temporarily closed after widespread exposure of the virus put a high number of staff and students in quarantine. To date, more than 20,000 Oxford and Elgin county residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
With a provincial lockdown looming, Ontario saw daily COVID-19 cases surge above 2,500.
There were 2,557 infections logged across the province on Thursday, up from 2,333 the previous day. Daily cases have not risen above the 2,500 mark since January 22 when 2,662 cases were recorded.
Toronto had the highest number of new infections of any city in the province with 743. Peel recorded 484, York Region had 311, Ottawa reported 131, and Hamilton had 119.
Ontario’s total case count now sits at 352,460.
Twenty-three additional deaths were reported on Thursday. The province’s death toll is now 7,389.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 1,116 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 433 are in intensive care and 259 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose by 1,814 to 324,196. There are currently 20,875 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 62,290 COVID-19 tests were processed. That is up from 52,532 tests on Wednesday. Ontario’s positivity rate is roughly 4.8 per cent.
The province has administered 2,276,313 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since Wednesday. There are 317,715 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.