Public health officials in London and Middlesex County logged 30 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
This marked the 21st consecutive day the region has recorded a double-digit case increase. Wednesday's new caseload is up from the 22 infections on Tuesday, 13 on Monday, and 25 on Sunday. The last time there was a single-digit case bump in the area was on August 11 when just five new infections were logged.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began now sits at 13,403.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths in the city or county on Wednesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 233.
Resolved cases are up by 34 for a total of 12,925. Active cases in the area currently sit at 245.
Hospitalizations in the area are up by one with 13 COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care. There are also five or fewer hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
An outbreak remains at the Total Package Hockey Day Camp, however, no new cases have been linked to the camp.
There were four more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 3,921. All of the new cases have been identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) strain for a total of 406. More than half of all of the Delta cases were recorded in August. That increased circulation of the more contagious variant has led the Middlesex London Health Unit to stress the importance of having at least 90 percent of the eligible population fully vaccinated. As of Saturday, 75.8 per cent of all area residents aged 12 and older have received two doses.
"Even though we’ve crossed the 75 per cent threshold, that’s still not enough coverage among our population to keep ourselves and our most vulnerable safe this fall and winter,” said Dr. Chris Mackie, the region's medical officer of health. “There’s still work to do.”
Of the 664 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 83.9 per cent are among people who are not fully vaccinated or have not reached full immunity.
Southwestern Public Health reported four more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,084. The death toll was unchanged at 85 with no additional deaths recorded since Tuesday. Resolved cases rose to 3,973. There are now 26 active cases in the two counties.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario climbed back above 600 following a one-day drop.
A total of 656 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is up from Tuesday’s 525 new cases, but is down from Monday’s 694, Sunday's 740, and Saturday's 835.
Of the latest 656 new cases, 397 were among unvaccinated people, 52 involved partially vaccinated people, 152 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 55 had unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the highest number of new infections over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 158, York Region with 76, Peel Region with 59, and Windsor-Essex with 50.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 566,206.
According to public health officials, there were 13 additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday, but five of those deaths occurred in the last week. The remaining eight occurred more than a week ago. The official death toll now stands at 9,516.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found no new lab confirmed cases over the past 24 hours of the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant. There are currently a total of 146,341 cases of that strain. The number of cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant and the B.1.351(Beta) variant were unchanged leaving the totals at 5,222 and 1,501. Another 764 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant were also identified for a total of 10,543.
Hospitalizations in the province have increased to 339 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s up by three patients from the previous day. There are 163 people in intensive care, up five from Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is up by four to 135.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 157 were unvaccinated, 14 have had one dose, and 36 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 151 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. There are 12 people in the ICU who received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up 650 to 550,829. That leaves 5,861 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 27,572 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 19,643 on Tuesday. Ontario’s positivity rate has risen slightly from 3.1 per cent to 3.2 per cent.
The province has administered just over 20.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are more than 9.9 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.