COVID-19 cases among hospital workers in London have climbed to a level not seen since mid-January.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reported another 21 staffers tested positive for the virus on Friday, increasing the total number of employee cases to 294. That is up from 226 at this time last week. Staff infections have not been this high since January 21 when 297 workers were confirmed to have COVID-19.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 went up by four to 41, according to figures released by LHSC. Hospitalizations have been on the rise for two weeks. This is the first time since March 14 over 40 COVID positive patients were in the care of the LHSC. The hospital network noted 17 of the 41 infected inpatients were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 24 others came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The hospital network has six patients with COVID listed in intensive care, up from five or fewer on Thursday. Children’s Hospital has five or fewer inpatients with the virus, unchanged from the previous day.
Another 58 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours by the Middlesex London Health Unit, down from 135 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 34,839.
The health unit said there were no additional deaths linked to the virus on Friday. It is the second straight day the death toll did not increase in London and Middlesex County. The local death toll currently stands at 365.
The number of resolved cases rose to 33,479. There are 995 known active cases in the region, down eight over the past 24 hours.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 128 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 12,370 with 11,791 resolved. The COVID-19 death toll locally was unchanged at 156. There are currently 423 known active cases in the two counties.
COVID-19 hospitalizations across the province saw another increase on Friday.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 1,135 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals in Ontario. That is up nine from the previous day. At this time last week, 804 hospitalizations were reported across the province.
Of the 1,135 in hospital Friday, roughly 45.3 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 54.7 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 166 patients with COVID-19, up seven from Thursday.
Ontario logged 4,295 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 1,188,640.
There were ten additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,537. The province said six of the deaths occurred within the past month and four occurred more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 2,644 to 1,147,533.
In the last 24 hour period, 17,565 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 19 per cent, up from 16.4 per cent a week ago and 12.6 per cent two weeks ago.
To date, the province has administered 32,146,824 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7.2 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
