A healthcare worker performs coronavirus swab on a patient. File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo /NoielA healthcare worker performs coronavirus swab on a patient. File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo /Noiel
London

352 new COVID-19 cases recorded in London-area since Friday

The number of COVID-19 cases in the London region was back in the triple-digits on Monday.

The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 118 new infections over the past 24 hours. Eighty-five new cases were also recorded on Sunday and an eight month high of 149 cases were confirmed on Saturday. Daily case counts returned to triple-digits in the region on Friday, the first time they had done so since early May. The health unit released three days worth of COVID-19 data on Monday as it no longer updates its online dashboard on weekends.

The area’s total case count stands at 16,102 since the pandemic began.

The death toll remained unchanged at 257. There has not been a COVID-19 related death locally since last Thursday.

Resolved cases are up by 127 to 14,988. The number of active cases in the city and county went up by 219 since Friday to 857 on Monday.

Outbreaks are ongoing at two local seniors' facilities, 17 schools, three post secondary residences, and one daycare centre.

The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is reporting 16 patients with COVID-19 in its care, up two from Friday. Eight of the patients in the care of the LHSC are listed in intensive care and five or fewer are at Children’s Hospital. The LHSC currently has 28 staffers who have tested positive for the virus.

More than half of the 1,490 people in the London region who have contracted the virus over the past six weeks were fully vaccinated. They account for 62.3 per cent, while the unvaccinated, partially vaccinated and those who had received the vaccine but it had not yet taken effect make up 37.7 per cent of cases.

The number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Elgin and Oxford counties was 128 on Monday. That number includes infections identified both Saturday and Sunday, as Southwestern Public Health does not update its COVID-19 dashboard on weekends. The latest cases bring the two counties total case count to 5,963. There were no additional deaths recorded, leaving the death toll at 108. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 5,542, leaving 313 known active cases.

Provincially, the number of new COVID-19 cases remained above 3,500.

Public health officials reported 3,784 new infections on Monday. That is down from 4,177 on Sunday, but up from 3,301 on Saturday and 3,124 last Friday. According to the province, the Omicron variant now accounts for at least 83 per cent of all positive cases, a jump from 50 per cent on Friday.

The latest cases put Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic to 653,727.

Of the 3,784 cases recorded over the past 24 hours, 746 were reportedly among unvaccinated people, 119 involved partially vaccinated people, and 2,781 were fully vaccinated people. There were 138 COVID-positive individuals whose vaccination status was not known.

Zero additional COVID-19 related deaths were reported on Monday, leaving the death toll at 10,113.

At hospitals in Ontario, there are 284 patients with COVID-19. The total number of patients in the intensive care unit is at 164 and the number of patients on ventilators stands at 152.

The number of resolved cases rose by 1,040 to 620,023. There are currently 23,591 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.

The province processed 44,123 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate is currently 9.7 per cent.

There have been 25,422,938 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ontario as of Sunday night. Over 90 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine, while 87.8 per cent have been given their second dose to be considered fully inoculated.

Nearly 169,000 doses were administered last Friday, with the province planning on ramping up the number of doses administered per day to  200,000 to 300,000.

"As we continue to increase our daily capacity, individual public health units are actively working to add appointments to the booking system on an ongoing basis. Public health units will continue to keep the public informed as more appointments go live on the provincial booking system," said Alexandra Hilkene, a ministry of health spokesperson. "We also encourage Ontarians to check regularly for availability through other channels such as pharmacies, primary care settings, and walk-in clinics."

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