The daily COVID-19 case count in the London region has remained in the single-digits for a fourth straight day.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported three new infections on Monday. That is down from seven new cases on Sunday and six on Saturday. Single-day case numbers in the region have bounced back and forth between single-digits and the low-to-mid twenties since the start of the month.
The area’s total case count stands at 12,505 since the pandemic began.
It has been a week since a COVID-19 related death was recorded locally. The death toll is unchanged at 223.
There were eight more cases involving variants of concern identified in the region since Friday, for a total of 3,425. The Alpha B.1.1.7 variant, which originated in the U.K., now accounts for 3,332 of the cases. There are 83 cases of the Gamma P.1. variant from Brazil, two cases identified as the Beta B.1.351 variant from South Africa, and four cases of the B.1.617 variant and sublineages of that strain that originated in India. There are 195 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 15 inpatients with COVID-19, with no admissions since Friday. Of those in hospital, nine are in the intensive care unit. Fewer than five patients transferred in from other hard hit regions are in acute care and ICU. An outbreak remains on University Hospital’s 8TU – transplant unit. Fewer than five patients and fewer than five employees have contracted the virus.
There are no current outbreaks at local seniors’ facilities, schools, or daycare centres.
Resolved cases in the city and county are up by eight to 12,212. Currently, there are 70 active cases in the region.
As of Monday, the health unit has begun hosting vaccination pop-up clinics at London-area schools. Sir Arthur Carty Catholic Elementary School at 1655 Ernest Avenue is the first to host such a site. It will be followed Tuesday by John Paul II Catholic Secondary School on Oxford Street East. The school-based pop-up clinics are intended for people in need of their first dose who have been unable to make it to the region’s mass vaccination clinics. The temporary sites will operate from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties was 11 on Monday. The number includes infections identified both Saturday and Sunday, as Southwestern Public Health does not update its COVID-19 dashboard on weekends. The latest cases bring the two counties total case count to 3,861. There were no additional deaths recorded over the past two days, leaving the death toll unchanged at 83. There are currently no active institutional outbreaks locally. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 3,748, leaving 30 known active cases.
Provincially, the number of new COVID-19 cases fell to its lowest level since mid-September.
Public health officials reported 270 infections on Monday. That is down from 318 on Sunday, 355 on Saturday, and 345 on Friday. Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 47, Waterloo with 44, Peel with 42, and York with 22.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 102 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, or Alpha as it is now known, since the previous day for a total of 142,215. There were 24 more cases of the P.1 variant, Gamma, for a total of 4,254, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant, Beta, is unchanged for a total of 1,154. There were 136 more cases identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) variant, originally found in India for a total of 887.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 542,468.
Three deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, to increase the province’s death toll to 9,022.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 261 patients with COVID-19. That is down five from the previous day. However, the province noted that is an underestimate as not all hospitals in Ontario reported their numbers over the weekend. The total number of infected patients in the intensive care unit is down by 10 to 323 and there are six fewer patients on ventilators for a total of 202.
The number of resolved cases rose by 486 to 529,992. There are currently 3,454 known active cases of the virus in Ontario, down from 5,374 a week ago.
In the last 24 hour period, 13,800 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate sits at 2.5 per cent.
The province has administered 12,669,775 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Sunday night. More than 2.9 million people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
The federal government announced plans on Monday to loosen border restrictions for Canadians who are fully vaccinated. As of July 5, those returning from abroad who have received two doses of the vaccine will no longer have to quarantine for two weeks or stay at a government hotel until they test negative for COVID-19. They will still need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.