A man in his 20s has become the first person to die from COVID-19 in the London-area in nearly a week.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the man's death on Thursday. Public health officials have released no other details about the man, other than to state he was not associated with any seniors’ facilities. He is among the youngest to succumb to the virus in the region. An 18-year-old died from COVID-19 earlier this month and a 19-year-old long-term care home worker died due to the virus in January.
There have been 18 COVID-19 related deaths this month, bringing the local death toll to 218.
Another 49 new COVID-19 cases were also logged on Thursday. That is up slightly from the previous day’s 46 new infections. The region’s total case count since the pandemic began is now 12,126.
Hospitalizations in the area were down by three on Thursday with 36 COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are 11 COVID-19 patients listed in intensive care at the LHSC. The number of COVID-19 patients transferred to the LHSC from outside of the region has declined with fewer than five in acute care and fewer than five in intensive care.
There were 29 more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 2,946. Among the new variants to be identified in the region are two sublineages of the B.1.617 strain from India and one case of the B.1.351 variant from South Africa. The health unit also noted 365 cases have tested positive for a mutation.
Active outbreaks remain at three area seniors’ facilities, one school, and two child care centres.
There were 56 more recoveries reported over the past 24 hours to bring the number of resolved cases to 11,476. Currently, there are 432 active cases in the region, 188 fewer than this time last week.
A two-day mobile community vaccination clinic opens at the FlightExec Centre in Dorchester Friday. Up to 400 people will be inoculated at this site while it is in operation. To book an appointment online head to www.covidvaccinelm.ca or call 226-289-3560 daily between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties increased on Thursday to ten. Southwestern Public Health said the latest cases bring the two counties' total caseload to 3,761. There has not been a COVID-19 related death in the region since Tuesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 80. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,607 and there are 74 known active cases in the two counties. An outbreak at the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital continues.
Provincially, new infections climbed back above 1,100 for the first time in three days.
Public health officials said there were 1,135 new cases on Thursday. That is an increase from the 1,095 logged on Wednesday and 1,039 recorded on Tuesday.
Regions with the most new cases were Toronto with 316, Peel with 271, and York Region with 75.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 527,180.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 1,227 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 122,349. Thirty-nine more cases of the P.1 variant were found for a total of 2,544, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant went up by four for a total of 840. The daily epidemiologic summary does not currently list the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
Nineteen deaths were reported on Thursday, to increase the province’s death toll to 8,697.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 1,072 patients with COVID-19, a decrease of one from the previous day. Of those in hospital, 650 are in intensive care and 452 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 501,942. There are currently 16,541 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 37,705 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate hit its lowest level in over two months, dropping to 3.6 per cent from 5.3 per cent.
The province has administered 8,530,698 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There have been nearly 594,854 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.