The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) saw a slight dip in both COVID-19 hospitalizations and staff infections on Tuesday.
The number of patients admitted to hospital with the virus decreased by three over the previous 24 hours to 44, the LHSC confirmed. Hospitalizations had been slowly climbing for the past couple of weeks and have been above 40 since last Friday. Admissions to the intensive care unit remained unchanged from the previous day at five or fewer. Children’s Hospital currently has five or fewer COVID-19 positive patients in its care, the same as Monday.
LHSC officials specified that 17 of the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The other 27 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
The London Health Sciences Centre reported 281 of its employees are currently infected. That is down seven since Monday. Despite the one day decrease, hospital officials have warned staffing shortages due to increased community spread of COVID-19 could lead to service reductions at the LHSC.
“We may find ourselves in a position of having to consolidate or reduce services as the week continues or having to transfer patients to our regional partners,” Dr. Adam Dukelow, the hospital network's chief medical officer, said during a media briefing on Monday.
He said in addition to workers who have contracted the virus, there are a number of other employees who are off because they have been identified as close contacts of an infected individual.
There were 74 new COVID-19 infections logged in London and Middlesex County on Tuesday, according to the Middlesex London Health Unit. Those cases bring the total case count since March 2020 to 35,190. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year. On Monday, the province announced it would open eligibility up ever so slightly by allowing certain high risk individuals to get tested.
There were no additional COVID-19 deaths recorded in London or Middlesex County over the past 24 hours. The local death toll currently stands at 366.
The health unit said there are 1,022 known active cases of the virus in the region, down 19 from Monday.
For a third straight week, there has been no change in local vaccination figures released. There are 93.6 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older who have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 91.6 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,124,256 doses administered locally since December 2020.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, does not update its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Tuesdays. Its next update will be released on Wednesday.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario have soared to a high not seen in nearly two months.
According to public health officials, there are 1,366 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up by 276 compared to figures released on Monday and is the highest hospitalizations have been in the province since February 16. At this time last week, there were 1,091 people hospitalized with the virus, showing hospitalizations have increased by 25 per cent over the past seven days.
The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 46 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 54 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, six more COVID-19 positive people were admitted to intensive care for a total of 190.
Ontario logged 2,300 new cases Tuesday. However, the single-day tally is less relevant since the provincial government restricted eligibility for publicly-funded COVID-19 tests. Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,200,619.
There were five additional deaths from the virus reported over the past 24 hours. One death was removed from the provincial total as part of a data cleanup. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 12,570.
Public health officials confirmed there were 14,183 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 18.7 per cent, up from 18 per cent a week ago and 14.4 per cent two weeks ago.
To date, the province has administered 32,243,286 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 7.2 million people, or 59.2 per cent, have received a booster shot.