For the second day in a row, there has been a COVID-19 death recorded in the London-area.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed on Wednesday a man in his 80s succumbed to the virus. His vaccination status was not released, but public health officials did state that he was not associated with a seniors' facility. The man's death is the fourth related to the virus so far this month and the second this week. On Tuesday, it was confirmed a man in his 70s had died from COVID-19.
The region's death toll is now at 249.
There were 15 new COVID-19 cases recorded on Wednesday, the health unit said. That is up from 13 on Tuesday and five on Monday.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began sits at 14,670.
Resolved cases are up by 12 to 14,311. There are currently 110 active cases locally, up from 108 the previous day.
Hospitalizations in the area are up by one with 14 COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, seven are listed in intensive care and five or fewer are in Children’s Hospital. There are five or fewer hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
An outbreak at École élémentaire catholique Frère-André has been declared over. The school had been dealing with the outbreak since November 12. There are now only three outbreaks involving schools in the region - Notre Dame Catholic, St Vincent De Paul Catholic Elementary, and St. Nicholas Senior Catholic.
The Village of Glendale Crossing and Richmond Woods Retirement Village, both in London, remain the only seniors' facilities with outbreaks.
Of the 450 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 60.4 per cent are among people who are either not vaccinated, not fully vaccinated or have not reached full immunity. The remaining 39.6 per cent were among those who had received both doses of the vaccine.
Southwestern Public Health reported 26 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 5,041. The death toll was unchanged at 95. Resolved cases rose to 4,779. There are now 167 active cases in the two counties, the highest reported since early May. Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock said during a media briefing on Tuesday that the majority of the cases have been identified in unvaccinated individuals. She is working on bringing forward a plan to tighten public health restrictions in the region to stop the surge of infections.
Ontario saw single-day COVID-19 case numbers climb back above 500 on Wednesday.
A total of 512 new infections were confirmed over the past 24 hours. That is up from Tuesday’s 481 but down from Monday’s 552. The latest cases bring the seven-day average caseload to 587, up from 502 a week ago.
Of the latest 512 new cases, 250 were among unvaccinated people, 19 involved partially vaccinated people, 202 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 41 had unknown vaccination status.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 608,718.
According to public health officials, there were 12 additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday. One of the latest deaths was an individual under the age of 20. The official death toll now stands at 9,950.
Hospitalizations in the province stand at 274 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s down by 25 patients from the previous day. There are 133 people in intensive care, a decrease of six since Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is down by four to 108.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 92 were unvaccinated, 16 have had one dose, and 68 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 66 are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated and 19 have received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up by 573 to 594,027. That leaves 4,741known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 28,931 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 18,965 the previous day. Ontario’s positivity rate remains at 2.5 per cent.
The province has administered just over 22.7 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are 11.1 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.