The Middlesex London Health Unit has recorded another COVID-19 death as the number of active cases of the virus in the region slipped below 100 for the first time since mid-August.
Public health officials announced the death of a man in his 70s on Wednesday. The man was not associated with a long-term care or retirement home. No other details about him, including his vaccination status were released. This is the area’s first COVID-19 death in more than a week. On October 10, the health unit confirmed the deaths of two men - one in his 80s, the other in his 50s.
The region’s death toll now sits at 244.
Fourteen new infections were logged on Wednesday, down from 18 the previous day. There have only been four days this month in which the daily case increase has been below ten. The area’s total case count since the pandemic began is 14,324.
Resolved cases are up by 18 to 13,985. There are currently 95 active cases locally, down from 104 on Tuesday. The number of active cases in the region had not been below 100 since August 13, when there were 83.
A COVID-19 outbreak at Providence Reformed Collegiate, a private school in Komoka, has been deemed over. It was originally declared on October 14. The only other local school dealing with an outbreak is Our Lady of the Pillar Academy in Strathroy. There are three cases linked to that private school.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) currently has nine inpatients with COVID-19 in its care, down one since Tuesday. Five or fewer of those patients are listed in intensive care and five or fewer are in the care of Children’s Hospital. There are currently five or fewer hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
No additional cases have been identified as variants of concern, leaving the local total at 4,280. There have been 766 cases involving the B.1.617 (Delta) strain since the health unit began tracking variants. There have also 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 675 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 73 per cent are among people who are either not vaccinated, not fully vaccinated or have not reached full immunity.
Southwestern Public Health reported 14 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,534. The death toll was unchanged at 90 with no additional deaths recorded over the past 24 hours. Resolved cases rose to 4,364. There are now 80 active cases in the two counties.
Ontario saw its lowest single-day COVID-19 case increase since early August on Wednesday.
A total of 304 new infections were confirmed over the past 24 hours. That is down from Tuesday’s 328 and Monday's 373. Wednesday's case count is the lowest recorded in the province since August 5 when 213 new cases were confirmed.
Of the latest 304 new cases, 198 were among unvaccinated people, ten involved partially vaccinated people, 84 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 12 had unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the highest number of new infections over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 46, Sudbury with 24, and York Region with 22.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 595,867.
According to public health officials, there were four additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday. The official death toll now stands at 9,823.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates there are 46 more cases believed to be the B.1.617 (Delta) variant. There are now a total of 20,022 cases of that strain in the province. The number of cases of the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant, P.1. (Gamma) variant, and the B.1.351(Beta) variant were unchanged with a total of 146,495, 5,230, and 1,503.
Hospitalizations in the province have dropped to 258 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s down by two patients from the previous day. There are 159 people in intensive care, unchanged from Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is up by two to 132.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 113 were unvaccinated, ten have had one dose, and 31 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 82 are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated and 23 have received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up by 537 to 582,609. That leaves 3,435 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 31,569 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from just over 20,400 the previous day. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 1.3 per cent.
The province has administered just over 22.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are 10,868,680 people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.