The daily COVID-19 case count in the London region remained low over the past three days.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported six new infections on Monday, eight Sunday, and five Saturday. The health unit released three days worth of data on Monday as it no longer reports COVID-19 figures over the weekend. The latest new case numbers are in line with figures recorded each day since the start of the month. So far in July, there have only been three days in which single-day case numbers climbed into the double-digits.
The area’s total case count stands at 12,697 since the pandemic began.
There has not been a COVID-19 related death locally since last Thursday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 229.
Resolved cases in the city and county are up to 12,409. Currently, there are 59 active cases in the region.
There was one more case involving variants of concern identified in the region since Friday, for a total of 3,533. The Alpha B.1.1.7 variant, which originated in the U.K., accounts for 3,369 of the cases. There are 99 cases of the Gamma P.1. variant from Brazil, two cases identified as the Beta B.1.351 variant from South Africa, and 58 cases of the B.1.617 variant and sublineages of that strain that originated in India. There are 207 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has six inpatients with COVID-19. Of those in hospital with the virus, fewer than five are in the intensive care unit. Currently, there are no hospital employees who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Another round of walk-in, pop-up vaccination clinics are planned this week for people who still need either their first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The health unit run clinics are for anyone aged 12 or older. The first will be held Monday at Sir Arthur Carty Catholic Elementary School on Ernest Avenue, followed by one Tuesday at John Paul II Catholic Secondary School on Oxford Street and another Wednesday at Westminster Secondary School on Baseline Road West. All three clinics will run from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Middlesex London Paramedic Service will also hold a pop-up clinic for adults 18 and older from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday at the Granton Park and Ball Diamonds in Granton. To see the full list of pop-up vaccination clinics in London and Middlesex County click here.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Elgin and Oxford counties was 13 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 3,928. There were no additional deaths recorded over the past three days, leaving the death toll unchanged at 84. There are currently no active institutional outbreaks locally. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 3,824, leaving 20 known active cases. As of Sunday, 76.9 per cent of all people in the two counties 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, 52.6 per cent have been given both shots.
Provincially, daily cases slide back below 150, the first time they have done so since last Thursday.
Public health officials reported 130 new infections on Monday. That is down from 177 on Sunday and 176 on Saturday. Ontario has now seen 11 consecutive days with daily case counts below 200.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 18, Peel Region with 17, and Waterloo Region with 16.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified three more cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, or Alpha as it is known, since the previous day for a total of 144,802. There were no additional cases of the P.1 variant, Gamma, leaving the total unchanged at 4,955, and the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant, Beta, was also unchanged for a total of 1,466. There were four more cases identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) variant, originally found in India increasing the total to 3,322.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 548,347.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths reported over the past 24 hours, to leave the province’s death toll at 9,294. This is the third time since July 7 there have been no deaths linked to the virus reported in Ontario.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 115 patients with COVID-19. That is up 10 from the previous day. The total number of patients in the intensive care unit is down by one to 151 and the number of patients on ventilators is down by five to 94. ICU numbers include patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19 but have since recovered and remain due to other complications.
The number of resolved cases rose by 153 to 537,698. There are currently 1,355 known active cases of the virus in Ontario, down from 1,610 a week ago.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 11,567 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate sits at 1 per cent.
The province has administered 18,205,549 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Sunday night, that includes 91,320 doses administered over the past 24 hours. There have been 7,926,705 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.