COVID-19’s grip on London hospitals may finally be loosening.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reporded fewer patients and workers infected with the virus on Wednesday. The hospital network confirmed there are 161 inpatients with the virus, down from 166 the previous day. The number of people with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit held steady for a second straight day at 24. The number of inpatients at Children’s Hospital went down with five or fewer patients in the hospital’s care.
The LHSC specified that, of the 161 COVID-19 patients at its hospitals, 87 are being treated for COVID-19, while 74 were admitted for other reasons but have the virus.
Sixty-three fewer hospital staffers have tested positive for the virus, for a total of 311. That is a considerable drop compared to the same day last week when 512 employees were infected.
The decrease in cases in London hospitals reaffirm Middlesex London’s acting medical officer of health’s belief that the Omicron variant wave has reached its peak locally.
“COVID-19 rates continue to be high in our region, however, some early indications are consistently suggesting that we are seeing a plateau in the burden of illness in our community,” Dr. Alex Summers said during a media briefing on Tuesday.
He credited residents for getting their vaccine booster shots and reducing their social contacts for the slowing spread.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 230 new COVID-19 infections in the area over the past 24 hours, up from 191 on Tuesday. Resolved cases increased to 24,848, which helped lower the number of active cases locally to 2,651. However, public health officials have said current case numbers are likely an underestimation of the true number of people with the virus due to eligibility changes for lab-based PCR testing.
There were no additional deaths linked to the virus in the region on Tuesday, leaving the death toll at 274.
Southwestern Public Health reported 86 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 9,386. The death toll was unchanged at 129. Resolved cases rose to 8,377. There are now 880 active cases in the two counties.
The number of people in intensive care at Ontario hospitals neared 600 on Wednesday.
A total of 4,132 people infected with the virus are currently in hospitals across the province. That is up from 3,448 COVID-19 patients in hospital a week ago. Just over 53 per cent of the 4,132 patients reported Wednesday were admitted because of the virus, while 46.6 per cent are there for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
Of those in hospital, 589 are in the ICU, up nine from the previous day. Roughly 82 per cent of those in the ICU were admitted because of COVID-19, while the remaining 18 per cent are there for other reasons but also have the virus.
The province recorded 5,744 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, which is considered an underestimate of community spread. Daily case numbers are no longer thought to be a true reflection of spread of the virus in the province as the government has limited who is eligible for a free PCR test.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 969,437.
According to public health officials, there were 60 additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday. One of those deaths actually occurred more than a month ago but was just added to the count. The official death toll now stands at 10,726.
Resolved cases across the province are up by 12,891 to 874,445.
In the last 24 hour period, 34,579 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 22 per cent.
The province has administered 29,664,874 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. Nearly 89 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated. There are more than 5.7 million people in the province who have now received the booster shot.
