For the third consecutive day, the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has set a record for the number of COVID-19 positive patients in its care.
The hospital network confirmed on Thursday there are 135 people with COVID-19 admitted to its facilities. That is a new pandemic high for the hospital. The previous record of 129 inpatients was set one day earlier. Of the 134, there are 74 being treated for COVID-19. The remaining 61 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
There was a slight increase in the number of COVID-19 positive patients in the intensive care unit. The LHSC reported 24 in ICU on Thursday, up from 21 the previous three days. There are two more children with COVID-19 in the care of Children's Hospital for a total of eight. For the first time this week, the number of hospital staff who have contracted the virus has gone down. There are currently 509 staffers sick, down three from Wednesday's 512.
Additional COVID-19 cases have been linked to outbreaks at the LHSC. There are currently 13 confirmed patient cases and ten confirmed employee cases associated with the outbreak on University Hospital's A9 inpatients Unit on corridors 100 and 200. There are 17 confirmed patient cases and five or fewer confirmed and 16 potential staff cases linked to an ongoing outbreak on the north-end hospital's 7IP Clinical Neurosciences unit. Victoria Hospital’s Adult Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit has seven confirmed patient cases and as many as 15 employee cases connected to it. The LHSC noted that cases involving staff may fluctuate from day-to-day as each positive case on the affected units is investigated to determine whether they are actually part of the outbreak.
Within the community, there were 323 new COVID-19 cases recorded by the Middlesex London Health Unit on Thursday. That is down slightly from the previous day's 324 new cases.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began is now 25,227, according to the health unit.
There was another COVID-19 related death locally on Thursday. A woman in her 100s who was associated with a long-term care home is the second person in two days to succumb to the virus. Her death brings the death toll up to 265.
The number of resolved cases is up by 686 to 21,314. Currently, there are 4,648 active cases in the region, down 336 from the previous day.
There are 26 seniors’ facilities dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks locally.
There were 112 new COVID-19 cases logged Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties. Southwestern Public Health’s total caseload has now increased to 8,831. The death toll has gone up by one to 127. The total number of resolved cases stands at 7,531 and there are 1,173 known active cases locally.
Provincially, there was another jump in the number of hospitalizations from the virus.
The latest figures released by the province on Thursday show there are 3,630 people with COVID-19 admitted to hospitals in Ontario. That is up 182 since Wednesday. Of the COVID-19 positive people in hospital, roughly 54 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while around 46 per cent were initially brought in for some other reason and tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 500 people in intensive care units across the province, down five from Wednesday, but up from 319 a week ago. Eighty-two per cent of the 500 patients in ICU are there because of the virus.
Public health officials said there were 9,909 new cases in Ontario on Thursday. That is up from 9,783 infections logged on Wednesday and 7,951 new cases recorded on Tuesday. Public health officials cautioned those numbers are an underestimate of the spread of the virus though, as changes made late last month limit who can get a free PCR test in Ontario.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 915,940.
Thirty-five additional deaths related to the virus were reported on Thursday. The province’s death toll is currently 10,480.
The number of resolved cases rose by 19,816 to 783,214.
In the last 24 hour period, 58,831 tests COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now around 21.4 per cent, down from 29.2 per cent a week ago.
The province has administered 29,017,284 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. More than 91.2 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine, while 88.6 per cent have been given a second dose to be considered fully inoculated. Over 5.1 million booster shots have been administered.