For the fourth straight day this week, the number of COVID-19 infections among hospital staffers in London went up.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reported on Friday 198 workers have tested positive for the virus. That is up 19 from the previous day, 38 from Wednesday, and 48 from Tuesday. At this time a week ago there were only 144 employees infected, according to the LHSC.
Hospitalizations from the virus continue to decrease. The LHSC currently has 44 COVID-19 inpatients in its care, down by six from Thursday. Hospitalization numbers in London have been steadily falling for the past two weeks. Of those in the care of the LHSC, six are listed in intensive care. That is down by one over the past 24 hours.
The LHSC noted 17 of the 44 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 27 remaining people came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said on Friday there has not been a death linked to the virus in two straight days. That comes after the region recorded its highest single-day death toll of the pandemic on Wednesday with eight people succumbing to the virus. The local death toll since the pandemic began stands at 349. Forty-nine of those deaths occurred this month alone, making February 2022 the second deadliest for London and Middlesex County.
Another 72 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in the city and county, down from 92 on Thursday. However, the Middlesex London Health Unit has noted that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to changes made to testing eligibility.
The local total of confirmed infections since the pandemic began now sits at 31,590.
The number of resolved cases rose by 95 to 30,498. There are 743 known active cases in the region, down 18 over the past 24 hours.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 73 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 11,143 with 10,732 resolved. There was one additional COVID-19 death recorded since Wednesday to bring the local death toll up to 149. There are currently 262 known active cases in the two counties.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario have fallen to a low not seen since late December.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 1,003 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals across the province. That is down 63 from the previous day. Of the 1,003 in hospital, roughly 49 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 51 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 297 patients with COVID-19, down five from Thursday. It is the first time since early January ICU admissions have dropped below 300.
Ontario logged 2,427 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. 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 1,096,357.
There were 39 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,386. The province said 35 of the latest deaths happened over the past 28 days and four were from more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 2,427 to 1,065,561.
In the last 24 hour period, 21,550 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 9.8 percent, down from 10.8 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 31,616,302 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.5 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 6.9 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
