The London region has hit another vaccination milestone.
More than 80 per cent of area residents 12 and older have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are considered fully vaccinated. Just over 86 percent of those in the same age bracket have been given one shot. In total there have been 760,057 doses administered locally since December.
Figures released by the Middlesex London Health Unit on Tuesday show the 18-24 crowd continues to lag behind other age groups in getting the shot. That block of young people currently has the lowest vaccination rate in the city and county with only 69.4 per cent having received both doses and 78.9 per cent with one dose.
The health unit continues to host daily walk-in, pop-up vaccination clinics in hopes of boosting those numbers. The clinics have include locations in malls and after hours in the downtown. To see the full list of vaccination clinics click here.
The positive news about London and Middlesex's overall vaccination rate comes as the region logged 16 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday. That is up from 12 on Monday, but down from 18 on Sunday and 21 on Saturday. Tuesday's new cases marks the 14th consecutive day the daily case count has been in the double-digits. The area’s total case load since the pandemic began stands at 13,963.
The region’s death toll is unchanged at 238.
Resolved cases are up by 25 to 13,565. There are currently 160 active cases locally.
There are four area schools dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks. Lord Elgin Public has the highest number of infections linked to its outbreak with 11 as of Monday evening. Other school outbreaks are at École élémentaire La Pommeraie, Ekcoe Central School, and Wilfrid Jury Public. A previous outbreak at St. Thomas More Catholic has been declared over. The Thames Valley District School Board currently has 34 active cases at 27 schools, while the London District Catholic School Board has eight cases at six schools.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) currently has 14 inpatients with COVID-19 in its care, up one since Monday. Seven 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 three cases have been identified as variants of concern for a total of 4,250. All of the new variants identified were of the B.1.617 (Delta) strain for a total of 736. 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.
Of the 854 people who have contracted the virus locally since August 17, approximately 69.1 per cent were not vaccinated, 10.2 per cent were partially vaccinated, and 17 per cent were fully vaccinated. Another 3.7 per cent had the shot but it had not yet begun offering protection.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were three new cases recorded on Tuesday. That brings Southwestern Public Health’s total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 4,265. The death toll is unchanged with 86 deaths. Resolved cases rose to 4,151 with 86 known active cases in the two counties remaining. As of Sunday, 85.4 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 80 per cent have received both doses.
Ontario logged less than 500 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours.
Public health officials recorded 466 new infections on Tuesday. That is down from 613 Monday, 654 Sunday, and 640 Saturday.
The unvaccinated continue to account for more than half of the new cases across the province Tuesday, with 277 of the infections reported among those who have not had a single shot. The partially vaccinated makeup 27 of the new cases, and there were 119 cases involving the fully vaccinated. Another 43 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 138, followed by Peel Region with 39, and Ottawa and Windsor-Essex with 31 each.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 585,007.
The Delta variant, B.1.617, continues to be the fastest spreading strain in the province. According to the daily epidemiology report, there were 211 more cases identified as being the Delta variant for a total of 18,508. There was one additional case identified as the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 for a total of 146,461. The number of cases involving the Beta variant B.1.351 and Gamma variant P.1 were unchanged at 1,502 and 5,229.
There were 11 additional deaths reported Tuesday, bringing the provincial death toll from the virus to 9,715. Two of the latest deaths to be reported actually occurred more than a month ago and are just being added to the total as part of a data cleanup.
There are currently 315 people with COVID-19 being treated at Ontario hospitals, up 129 from Monday. COVID-19 related admissions to the intensive care unit are down by four to 180 and there are 152 people breathing with the assistance of a ventilator, a decrease of five. Of those on general hospital wards with the virus, 124 are not fully vaccinated. Thirty-seven are fully vaccinated.
The number of resolved cases rose by 819 to 570,030. There are currently 5,262 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 23,785 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from the more than 22,600 the previous day. The province’s positivity rate is now 2.1 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 21,704,159 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with more than 10.4 million people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.