For a second straight day, there has been a COVID-19 related death in the London region.
A man in his 70s who was linked to a long-term care home has succumbed to the virus, the Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed. This is the third COVID-19 death in London and Middlesex County this week. The deaths of a man in his 80s and a woman in her 60s, who were both infected, were added to the official count on Thursday. The local death toll now stands at 386.
Another 26 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Friday by the health unit, down from 36 the previous day. The health unit continues to note that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to limited testing eligibility. The total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 37,790.
The number of resolved cases rose to 37,019. There are 385 known active cases in the region, down 14 over the past 24 hours.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed 35 inpatients with the virus remain in its care, an increase of five since Thursday. The hospital network noted 18 of the 35 infected inpatients were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 17 others came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The LHSC has five or fewer patients with COVID listed in intensive care, a figure that has held steady for two and a half weeks. Children’s Hospital has zero COVID-19 positive inpatients currently admitted.
The number of infected hospital workers continued to trend down on Friday. The LHSC said there are currently 123 employees who have tested positive, a decrease of five from the previous day. At this time last week, there were 149 infected workers.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 37 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said that brings the local total number of cases to 13,812 with 13,445 resolved. There were no additional COVID-19 deaths locally, leaving the death toll at 167. There are currently 200 known active cases in the two counties.
Ontario recorded a drop in both COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admission on Friday.
There are currently 1,165 people in hospitals in Ontario with the virus, down 42 since Thursday. At this time last week, 1,453 hospitalizations were reported across the province.
Of the 1,165 people in hospital Friday, roughly 39 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 61 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 163 patients with COVID-19, a decrease of five from Thursday.
Ontario logged 1,412 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. Public health officials have cautioned the daily counts are an underestimate of the spread of the virus in the province due to limited PCR testing eligibility.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,293,226.
Public health officials confirmed 24 additional deaths over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 13,146. The province said 16 of the deaths occurred within the last month, while eight others were added to the count following a data cleanup.
The number of resolved cases are up by 1,887 to 1,263,669.
In the last 24 hour period, 14,413 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 9.1 per cent, down from 12 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 33,201,525 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91.3 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7.3 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.