Following a one day plunge to levels not seen since late March, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the London region rose a bit on Tuesday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 55 new infections over the past 24 hours. That is up from 27 on Monday, the lowest single-day case count since 22 infections were recorded on March 23. The latest daily figures bring the area’s total case count since the pandemic began to 11,264.
There has not been a COVID-19 related death in the area for two straight days. That leaves the death toll at 210.
Another 149 cases have been identified as variants of concern for a total of 2,177. There are 2,156 variants of concern that have been confirmed as the B.1.1.7 strain, which originated in the U.K. and 20 have tested positive as the P.1. variant from Brazil. The region has just a single case of the B.1.617 variant which originated in India. There are 287 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
There were 105 recoveries logged over the past 24 hours to bring the total number of resolved cases to 10,245. Currently, there are 809 active cases in the city and county.
There are ongoing outbreaks at four local long-term care homes – Dearness Home, Glendale Crossing, Kensington Village, and Kensington Village Retirement. The outbreak at Angels Daycare in Komoka has been resolved, leaving only one other child care facility - London Bridge: Rowntree Park Early Childhood Learning Centre - with active cases.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 76 patients with COVID-19 in its care, 41 of whom are listed in intensive care. COVID-19 patients transferred into the LHSC from harder hit regions of the province include nine acute care patients and 24 ICU patients.
As of Sunday, there have been 188,511 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region. Vaccine eligibility opened up on Tuesday for people with health conditions deemed to be high-risk and essential workers from group two of the province’s phase two vaccine rollout plan. By Thursday, the eligibility age at mass vaccination clinics will be lowered to adults born in 1981. Vaccine appointments can be booked online at www.covidvaccinelm.ca.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, the number of new infections reported on Tuesday was down. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said there were five new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from the weekend total of 58. That brings the total caseload since last spring to 3,572. There were zero additional COVID-19 related deaths in the region leaving the death toll unchanged at 77. Resolved cases rose to 3,362 with 133 known active cases in the two counties remaining. Roughly 31.5 per cent of area residents have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 2.1 per cent have received both doses. There are active outbreaks at Caressant Care Nursing home in Woodstock and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital. One death is associated with the outbreak at the hospital.
Ontario’s daily case count continues to head in the right direction, dropping below 2,100.
Public health officials logged 2,073 new infections across the province on Tuesday. That’s down from 2,716 on Monday and 3,216 on Sunday. Single-day case numbers in Ontario have not been this low since March 24 when 1,571 infections were recorded.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases on Tuesday with 685, followed by Peel with 389, York Region with 231, and Durham with 144.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 497,092.
The province has confirmed 2,283 more cases of the variant first discovered in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, for a total of 95,546. The number of cases of the variant first associated with South Africa, known as B.1.351. is up by 19 to 530. There are 34 more cases involving the variant first found in Brazil, known as P.1. for a total of 1,592. The epidemiologic summary currently does not list data surrounding the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
There were 15 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours. The provincial death toll is now 8,342.
There are currently 1,782 people with COVID-19 being treated at Ontario hospitals, an increase of 150 since Monday. COVID-19 related admissions to the intensive care unit are down by 26 to 802 and there are 568 patients on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 457,599. There are currently 31,151 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 28,109 COVID -19 tests were processed. That is up slightly from 27,175 the previous day and brings the province's positivity rate to 8.5 per cent.
To date, the province has administered more than 6.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 396,787 people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.