The Middlesex London Health Unit is reporting its second COVID-19 death of the month.
A woman in her 60s is the latest to succumb to the virus, the health unit said on Friday. She was not associated with a seniors’ facility. Her death is the second link to COVID-19 in the past three days. On Wednesday, the health unit reported a man in his 80s had died from the virus. The local death toll currently stands at 351.
Another 65 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in the city and county, down from 67 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 total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 32,007.
The number of resolved cases rose by 81 to 31,102. There are 554 known active cases in the region, down 20 over the past 24 hours.
Hospitalizations from the virus decreased on Friday, according to figures released by London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The hospital network currently has 43 COVID-19 inpatients in its care, down by one from Thursday. Hospitalization numbers in London have been in the low to mid-40s all week after steadily falling for the past three weeks. Of those in the care of the LHSC, six are listed in intensive care, up from a reported five or fewer on Thursday.
The LHSC noted 13 of the 43 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 30 remaining people came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
An updated number of COVID-19 positive hospital workers has not been released since Monday when 232 were listed as infected. The LHSC stated it will post the current number once it completes a validation of its data.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 56 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 11,299 with 10,908 resolved. There has not been a COVID-19 death recorded in a week, leaving the local death toll unchanged at 149. There are currently 242 known active cases in the two counties.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario continued their downward on Friday.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 821 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals across the province. That is down 13 from the previous day and down 182 from this time last week. Of the 821 in hospital, roughly 44 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 56 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 262 patients with COVID-19, down five from Thursday.
Ontario logged 2,085 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 1,109,493.
There were 28 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,525. The province said 26 of the latest deaths happened over the past month and two were from more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 2,079 to 1,080,064.
In the last 24 hour period, 15,925 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 10.7 percent, up from 9.8 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 31,753,871 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.6 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
