For the second consecutive day, the London region has seen a triple-digit increase in the number of new COVID-19 cases reported.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said there were 104 new infections logged on Thursday. That comes one day after a single-day case spike of 140. People under the age of 40 accounted for 70 of the cases confirmed over the past 24 hours.
There have now been a total of 10,305 cases of the virus reported in the city and county since the pandemic began.
The health unit also reported the region's tenth COVID-19 related death of the month on Thursday. A man in his 60s who was not connected to an assisted living facility is the latest to succumb to the virus. His death brings the local death toll to 198.
Resolved cases have risen to 9,154. Despite that, the area's number of active cases is up slightly to 953, from 939 the previous day.
The health unit said there was one additional case of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. for a total of 1,567. There have been four cases involving the P.1. variant from Brazil. The number of cases to test positive for a mutation went up by five to 269.
The London Health Sciences Centre continues to care for a high number of patients with COVID-19. As of Thursday, there are 95 admissions. There are four additional COVID-19 patients being treated in the intensive care unit for a total of 44. The hospital also has five employees who have tested positive for the virus.
Outbreaks remain active at five schools, three daycare centres, and five Western University residences.
It is expected the London region will give its 160,000 COVID-19 vaccine dose by end of day on Thursday.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties increased on Thursday with 19 reported. Southwestern Public Health said the latest cases bring the two counties total caseload to 3,392. The death toll was unchanged at 76. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,175, leaving 141 known active cases in the two counties.
Provincially, there were another 3,871 new infections reported as the number of COVID-19 related deaths in Ontario surpassed 8,000.
Public health officials said Thursday's new cases are an increase from the 3,480 logged on Wednesday and the 3,265 recorded on Tuesday.
Regions with the most new cases were Toronto with 1,172, Peel with 901, York Region with 392, Durham with 292, and Ottawa with 147.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 459,477.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 2,589 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 62,944. Ninety-six more cases of the P.1 variant were found for a total of 501, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant is up by 23 for a total of 243. The daily epidemiologic summary does not currently list the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
Forty-one deaths were reported on Thursday, to increase the province’s death toll to 8,029.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 2,248 patients with COVID-19, a decrease of 33. Of those in hospital, 884 are in intensive care and 620 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 413,010. There are currently 38,438 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 56,939 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate has risen slightly to 7.6 per cent from 7.2 per cent on Wednesday.
The province has administered 5,027,770 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There have been 368,403 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.