Following a one day drop into the single digits, the number of new cases of COVID-19 in the London-area returned to double digits on Wednesday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 33 new infections on Wednesday, up from 7 on Tuesday and 11 on Monday. Prior to Tuesday it had been 33 days since daily case counts were in the single digits. The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began sits at 13,697.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths in the region on Wednesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 237.
Resolved cases went up by 21 to 13,266, Active cases in the city and county rose to 194.
Hospitalizations in the area are unchanged with seven COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care and there are five or fewer in Children’s Hospital. There are also five or fewer hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
Three more COVID-19 cases have been identified at area schools since Tuesday. Public health officials now have a total of 17 active cases at 11 schools. That includes cases at eight Thames Valley District school board facilities and three schools in the French-language board. There are currently no active cases in the London District Catholic school board.
There were four more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 4,123. All of the new cases have been identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) strain for a total of 609. There have been a total of 3,384 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain, 124 cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant, and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) strain in the region since the health unit began tracking variants of the virus.
Of the 837 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 83.1 per cent are among people who are not fully vaccinated or have not reached full immunity.
Southwestern Public Health reported ten more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,174. The death toll was unchanged at 85 with no additional deaths recorded since August 31. Resolved cases rose to 4,029. There are now 60 active cases in the two counties.
For a second straight day, Ontario recorded fewer than 600 new COVID-19 cases.
A total of 593 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is up from Tuesday’s 577, but is down from Monday’s 600 new cases and Sunday's 784.
Of the latest 593 new cases, 348 were among unvaccinated people, 44 involved partially vaccinated people, 146 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 144, Peel Region with 61, and Ottawa with 46.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 576,389.
According to public health officials, there were five additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday, but one of those deaths occurred more than a month ago. It was added to Wednesday’s numbers as part of an ongoing data cleanup. The official death toll now stands at 9,629.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates four cases previously believed to be the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant were removed from the count. There are now a total of 146,451 cases of that strain in the province. The number of cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant and the B.1.351(Beta) variant were unchanged leaving the totals at 5,227 and 1,502. Another 411 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant were also identified for a total of 15,689.
Hospitalizations in the province have dropped to 346 COVID-19 positive patients. That's down by 17 patients from the previous day. There are 188 people in intensive care, down two from Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is down one to 165.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 148 were unvaccinated, seven have had one dose, and 35 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 126 are not fully vaccinated and ten have received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up 755 to 560,824. That leaves 5,936 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 33,220 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 21,133 the previous day. Ontario’s positivity rate has increased slightly from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The province has administered just over 21.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are more than 10.2 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.