The London region recorded another COVID-19 death on Tuesday, as the number of new cases of the virus dropped into single-digits for the first time in more than a month.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said the latest death involved a man in his 60s who was not associated with a long-term care or retirement home. No other details about the man, including his vaccination status were released. He is the fourth individual to succumb to the virus this month. The deaths of an unvaccinated man in his 50s and an unvaccinated woman in her 30s were confirmed by health officials on September 2. On Saturday, the death of a fully vaccinated woman in her 80s was recorded locally.
The region's death toll is now 237.
Just seven new infections were logged on Tuesday, down from 11 on Monday and 22 on Sunday. Prior to this, London and Middlesex County had not seen single-digit daily case increases since August 11 when five new cases were recorded.
The area’s total case count since the pandemic began stands at 13,662.
Resolved cases are up by 18 to 13,245. There are currently 180 active cases locally.
Just a week after students returned to the classroom, there are 14 active cases of the virus in ten area schools. Most of the active cases are within schools in the Thames Valley District school board. Currently, there are no active cases in the London District Catholic school board.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) currently has seven inpatients with COVID-19 in its care, unchanged since Monday. Five or fewer of those patients are listed in intensive care and five or fewer are in the care of Children’s Hospital. Fewer than five employees are in isolation after testing positive for the virus.
Another 29 cases have been identified as variants of concern for a total of 4,119. All of the new variants identified were of the.1.617 (Delta) strain for a total of 605. Since the health unit began tracking variants there have been a total of 3,384 of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain, 124 of the P.1. (Gamma) variant, and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) strain. There are 189 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
As of Saturday, there have been 738,157 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region, which works out to 84.7 per cent of all area residents aged 12 and older having received at least one dose. The percentage of the local population to receive both doses is currently 78.4.
Of the 817 people who have contracted the virus locally since August 3, approximately 64.6 per cent were not vaccinated, 15.7 per cent were partially vaccinated, and 16.9 per cent were fully vaccinated. Another 2.8 per cent had the shot but it had not yet begun offering protection.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were six new cases recorded on Tuesday. That brings Southwestern Public Health’s total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 4,164. The death toll is unchanged with 85 deaths. Resolved cases rose to 4,029 with 50 known active cases in the two counties remaining. Just over 83 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 77.7 per cent have received both doses.
Ontario logged less than 600 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours.
Public health officials recorded 577 new infections on Tuesday. That is down from 600 on Monday, 784 on Sunday, and 857 on Saturday.
The unvaccinated continue to account for more than half of the new cases across the province, with 349 of the infections reported Tuesday among those who have not had a single shot. The partially vaccinated makeup 54 of the new cases, and there were 125 cases involving the fully vaccinated. Another 49 of the cases involved individuals whose vaccination status is unknown.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases over the past 24 hours with 116, followed by Peel Region with 67, and York Region with 46.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 575,796.
The Delta variant, B.1.617, continues to be the fastest spreading strain in the province. According to the daily epidemiology report, there were 394 more cases identified as being the Delta variant for a total of 15,278.
There were seven additional deaths reported Tuesday, bringing the provincial death toll from the virus to 9,624.
There are currently 363 people with COVID-19 being treated at Ontario hospitals. COVID-19 related admissions to the intensive care unit are up by three to 192 and there are 119 people breathing with the assistance of a ventilator, also an increase of three. Of those in intensive care with the virus, 183 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. Nine are fully vaccinated.
The number of resolved cases rose by 683 to 560,069. There are currently 6,103 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 21,133 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 19,100 the previous day. The province’s positivity rate is now 2.3 per cent.
To date, the province has administered over 21.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with more than 10.1 million people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.