COVID-19 hospitalizations and the death toll in the London area both saw increases on Tuesday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reported it has 54 patients admitted to hospital with the virus. That is up by six compared to Monday. LHSC officials specified that 26 of the COVID-19 positive patients currently admitted are being treated for the virus. The other 28 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
Admissions to the intensive care unit held at five for a second straight day. Children’s Hospital has five or fewer COVID-19 positive patients in its care, including five or fewer in paediatric critical care. That is unchanged over the past 24 hours.
The number of workers who have tested positive saw a decrease on Tuesday. The LHSC reported 158 infected staffers, a drop of five.
There are two ongoing outbreaks at the LHSC - one on Victoria Hospital’s C6-300 sub-acute medicine unit, the other on University Hospital's U4 medicine 100 and low 200 wing.
There were 41 new COVID-19 infections logged in London and Middlesex County on Tuesday, according to the Middlesex London Health Unit. That is down slightly from 43 on Monday. The new infections bring the total case count since March 2020 to 37,048. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year.
There was one additional COVID-19 death recorded in London and Middlesex County. A man in his 90s who was not associated with a long-term care or retirement home, succumbed to the virus, the health unit said. The local death toll currently stands at 377.
The health unit said there are 769 known active cases of the virus in the region, down 68 from Monday.
There was little change to the local vaccination rate over the past week. The latest figures released by the health unit show 93.7 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older who have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 91.7 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses. Third and fourth doses have been administered to 56.4 per cent and 1.2 per cent of area residents.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,148,029 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.
There was a significant jump in the number of people with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 1,699 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up by 276 compared to figures released on Monday. Despite the increase reported Tuesday, hospitalization figures are still lower than this time last week when 1,730 people were hospitalized with the virus.
The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers over the past 24 hours shows roughly 42 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 58 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of COVID-19 positive people admitted to intensive care went down by nine to 202. Last Tuesday, there were 219 people in the ICU.
Ontario logged 1,547 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 1,263,202.
There were 16 additional deaths from the virus reported over the past 24 hours. Fifteen of the deaths occurred within the past month, while one occurred more than a month ago. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 12,858.
Public health officials confirmed there were 11,755 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 13.2 per cent, unchanged from a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 32,804,660 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91.2 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 7.3 million people have received a booster shot.