There have now been more than a dozen COVID-19 related deaths in London and Middlesex County since the start of the year.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed four more additional deaths from the virus on Tuesday. A woman in her 70s and three men in their 70s, 80s and 90s are the latest people to succumb to the virus locally. Their deaths bring the region’s death toll since the pandemic began to 274. Fifteen of those deaths occurred over the past two weeks.
Only one of the four most recent deaths was linked to a long-term care home.
The health unit also logged another 191 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 201 on Monday and 288 on Sunday. While Tuesday’s daily case tally marks the lowest single-day numbers so far this year, the figures are considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility.
The area’s total case count since March of 2020 stands at 26,534.
Resolved cases are up by 377 to 23,514. There are currently 2,746 active cases locally, down 181 from Monday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is treating 166 inpatients with the virus on Tuesday, up from 147 the previous day. Twenty-four of the 166 patients are listed in intensive care (unchanged from Monday) and six are in the care of Children’s Hospital.
LHSC officials specified that 94 of the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The remaining 72 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of hospital employees who have currently tested positive for COVID-19 is down by 16 from Monday to 374.
Outbreaks involving both patients and staff continued on eight units at Victoria and University hospitals.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,024,046 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region, which works out to 92.2 per cent of all area residents aged 12 and older having received at least one dose. The percentage of the local population to receive both doses is currently 89.8. Since eligibility for the shot opened up to kids aged 5 to 11 in late November, 54.1 per cent of children in that age group have received their first dose and 7.3 percent have been given a second dose.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 90 more infections confirmed on Tuesday. That brings Southwestern Public Health’s total number of confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic to 9,298. There was one additional COVID-19 related death, to bring the death toll up to 129. Resolved cases rose to 8,258 with 911 known active cases remaining in the area.
Ontario recorded an increase in the number of people with COVID-19 in hospital on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 4,183 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up 296 since Monday. The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 53.5 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 46.5 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, there are 580 COVID-19 positive people in intensive care, 82.1 per cent of whom were admitted because of the virus.
Ontario logged 7,086 new cases on Monday. The single-day tally has become less relevant since the provincial government restricted eligibility for publicly-funded COVID-19 tests. At the end of December, it was announced PCR testing would only be available for high-risk individuals who are symptomatic or are at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, meaning many infected have no way to have their diagnosis confirmed.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 963,693.
There were 38 additional deaths reported, bringing the provincial death toll from the virus to 10,666. All but one of the deaths reported on Tuesday occurred in the previous month.
The number of resolved cases rose by 10,189 to 861,554.
In the last 24 hour period, 31,355 COVID-19 tests were processed. The province’s positivity rate is now 24.5 per cent, roughly the same as it was a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 29,561,731doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 88.7 per cent of people 12 and older having received both shots required to be fully inoculated. More than 5.6 million people have received a booster shot.
