The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 100 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, as the number of ICU patients with the virus rose to 37.
It is the second straight day the number of new cases has been in the triple-digits after dropping below 100 Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. The new case count on Wednesday was 128. April has had a total of 15 days with triple-digit increases in the number of laboratory confirmed cases.
The region's total number of cases since the pandemic began is now 9,608, with 8,380 resolved and 195 deaths. No additional deaths have been recorded in the city or county since Monday. The number of active cases of the virus in the area is now down slightly to 1,033, from 1,075 the previous day.
The health unit said there were 33 more cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. for a total of 1,358. The number of cases involving the P.1. variant from Brazil remained unchanged at two. The number of cases to test positive for a mutation went up by three to 217.
The London Health Sciences Centre continues to deal with a record high number of patients with COVID-19 in its care. As of Thursday, there are 95 admissions. There are eight additional COVID-19 patients being treated in the intensive care unit for a total of 37. The hospital also has nine employees who have tested positive for the virus.
Outbreaks remain active at one local health care facility, seven schools, two daycare centres, and eight Western University residences.
There was a slight decrease in the number of new cases reported Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties. Southwestern Public Health reported 26 new infections, down from 28 the previous day. The latest numbers bring the region’s total case count to 3,263. There was another COVID-19 related death in the two counties, bringing the death toll to 75. The number of resolved cases in the region has increased to 3,020. There are 168 known active cases. Caressant Care Bonnie Place in St. Thomas is the only long-term care facility with an outbreak. Three resident and two staff infections have been identified there. There have been 316 variants of concern confirmed in the region.
Ontario’s daily COVID-19 cases have dropped back below 4,000.
There were 3,682 infections reported across the province on Thursday, down from 4,212 the previous day. The only other day this week new cases figures fell into the 3,000s was on Tuesday when 3,469 new infections were reported.
Toronto had the highest number of new cases of any city in the province over the past 24 hours with 1,131. Peel recorded 507, York Region had 436, Ottawa had 279, and Durham reported 200.
The total number of people to contact the virus across the province since the pandemic started last year is now 432,805.
Forty additional deaths were reported since Wednesday, the highest single day number of COVID-19 related deaths in the third wave. The province's death toll is now up to 7,829.
At hospitals in Ontario the situation remains more dire with 2,350 patients with COVID-19 admitted and a record high 806 in intensive care and 588 on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 383,014. There are currently 41,962 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 54,246 COVID-19 tests were processed. That is up from 51,877 tests on Wednesday. Ontario’s positivity rate is roughly 7.8 per cent.
The province has administered 4,266,802 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday. There are 351,354 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.