There was another drop in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the London-area on Tuesday, as the death toll continued to steadily rise.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the deaths of two women in their 80s, a man in his 70, and a man in his 80s over the last 24 hours. Only the man in his 80s was associated with a local long-term care home, the health unit said. The latest four deaths bring the death toll from the virus in London and Middlesex County to 335. Of those deaths, 35 occurred this month, and put February 2022 in line to be among the most deadly of the pandemic. Last month was the second most deadly of the pandemic with 46 deaths recorded, it was only surpassed by January 2021 when 71 people succumbed to the virus.
The number of people in London hospital with COVID-19 went down by ten to 79, according to figures from the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). That is a more than 33 per cent decrease compared to the same time last week. Admissions to the intensive care unit were unchanged on Tuesday at 17. Children’s Hospital currently has nine COVID-19 positive patients in its care, down one from Monday.
LHSC officials specified that of 43 the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The remaining 36 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 one from Monday to 135.
Fifty-three new COVID-19 infections were logged in the city and county over the past 24 hours, to bring the total case count since March 2020 to 30,914. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year. Resolved cases are up to 29,280 and there are currently 1,299 active cases locally.
New figures released by the health unit on Tuesday show 93.2 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have now received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 91 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses. People aged 70 to 74 are leading for most booster shots received with 84.3 per cent having got their third dose.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,094,576 doses administered locally since December 2020.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, no longer updates its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Tuesdays. It’s next update will be released on Wednesday.
Ontario saw a jump in hospitalizations on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 1,550 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up 131 since Monday. The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 54 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, ten fewer COVID-19 positive people were in intensive care for a total of 384. Nearly 80 per cent of those individuals were admitted because of the virus.
Ontario logged 1,593 new cases over the past 24 hours. The single-day tally has become 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 1,076,078.
There were 19 additional deaths from the virus reported on Tuesday. All of those deaths occurred over the past 24 days, according to public health officials. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 12,120.
Public health officials confirmed there were 12,961 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 11.9 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 31,329,083 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.2 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 6.7 million people have received a booster shot.
