On a day that the number of active COVID-19 cases in the London area dropped below 200, the Middlesex London Health Unit reported 18 new cases.
The 18 new cases mark a drop from 33 the previous day. The latest single-day case count is in line with numbers seen earlier this week. There were 18 new cases reported on Monday and 17 on Tuesday. The region’s total number of cases since the pandemic began is now 12,300, according to the Middlesex London Health Unit.
The local death toll was unchanged at 220 with no additional deaths recorded on Thursday. The death of a man in his 70s was reported on Wednesday.
Hospitalizations in the area were down by two on Thursday with 29 COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are nine 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 remains low with fewer than five in acute care and fewer than five in intensive care.
There were 19 more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 3,094. The majority of variants identified in the area are the B.1.1.7. strain from the U.K. The health unit also noted 372 cases have tested positive for a mutation.
Active outbreaks remain at one area seniors’ facility, one school, and one child care centre.
There were 40 more recoveries reported over the past 24 hours to bring the number of resolved cases to 11,886. Currently, there are 194 active cases in the region, 238 fewer than this time last week.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties increased slightly on Thursday to four. Southwestern Public Health said the latest cases bring the two counties’ total caseload to 3,802. There were no COVID-19 related deaths in the region a day after two were reported to raise the death toll to 82. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,677 and there are 43 known active cases in the two counties.
Provincially, new infections were below 1,000 for a fourth day in a row.
Public health officials said there were 870 new cases on Thursday. That is an increase from the 733 logged on Wednesday and 699 recorded on Tuesday. The consecutive days under four-digits helps to bring the seven-day average to 940, from 1,441 last week.
Regions with the most new cases were Toronto with 225, Peel with 167, and the Porcupine Health Unit region with 49.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 533,761.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 914 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 128,559. Ten more cases of the P.1 variant were found for a total of 2,921, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant went up by two for a total of 954. The daily epidemiologic summary does not list the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
Ten deaths were reported on Thursday, to increase the province’s death toll to 8,801.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 729 patients with COVID-19, an increase of 21 from the previous day. Of those in hospital, 546 are in intensive care and 370 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 514,999. There are currently 9,961 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 34,277 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate held steady at 2.8 per cent.
The province has administered 9,493,005 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There have been nearly 834,981people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.