The Middlesex London Health Unit reported another COVID-19 death on Tuesday.
A woman in her 90s is the latest person in the London region to succumb to the virus. She was not associated with either a long-term care or retirement home. Her death is the sixth related to the virus locally this month. It increases the total death toll for London and Middlesex County to 353.
The number of people in London hospitals with COVID-19 went down by six over the past 24 hours to 35, according to figures from the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). At this time last week there were 45 hospitalizations reported. Admissions to the intensive care unit remained at five or fewer. Children’s Hospital currently has five or fewer COVID-19 positive patients in its care.
LHSC officials specified that 14 of the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The other 21 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
There was a jump in the number of hospital staffers who have tested positive for COVID-19. As of Tuesday, there are 158 infected employees, that is up from 130 a week ago.
There were 50 new COVID-19 infections logged in London and Middlesex County on Tuesday. Those cases bring the total case count since March 2020 to 32,753. 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 31,756 and there are currently 644 known active cases locally.
“The risk of COVID-19 remains high in our community and the risk is likely still higher than at any point prior to the Omicron wave,” Middlesex London’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Alex Summer said during a media briefing held earlier this week.
He advised residents that they need to function as through still in the midst of a pandemic, even as the emergency response shifts to a resilience response.
The provincial government removed capacity limits and proof of vaccination requirements at the start of the month. Next week, mandatory masking comes to an end.
New figures released by the health unit on Tuesday show 93.5 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have now received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, unchanged from last week, while 91.5 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,111,323 doses administered locally since December 2020.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, does not update its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Tuesdays. It’s next update will be released on Wednesday.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Ontario rose by nearly 100 on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 688 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up by 86 since the province last reported the figure on Saturday. The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 49 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 51 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, eight fewer COVID-19 positive people were admitted to intensive care for a total of 220.
Ontario logged 1,076 new cases Tuesday. However, 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 1,127,532.
There were 16 additional deaths from the virus reported over the past 24 hours. Thirteen of those deaths occurred over the past 30 days. Three other deaths reported occurred more than a month ago. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 12,272.
Public health officials confirmed there were 9,698 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 13 per cent, up from 11.2 per cent a week ago and 10.3 per cent two weeks ago.
To date, the province has administered 31,900,491doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.8 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 7 million people, or 54.9 per cent, have received a booster shot.
