For the second day in a row, COVID-19 hospitalizations in London decreased by one.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed 48 inpatients with the virus remain in its care. That makes this the second day this week hospitalizations have been under 50. The hospital network noted 20 of the 48 infected inpatients were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 28 others came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The LHSC has nine inpatients with COVID listed in intensive care, up one compared to Thursday. Children’s Hospital has eight inpatients with the virus, down from the previous day, with five or fewer of those inpatients listed in paediatric critical care.
The number of infected hospital workers also saw a decrease over the past 24 hours. The LHSC said there are currently 215 employees who have tested positive, a drop of 20.
Another 63 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Friday by the Middlesex London Health Unit, down from 89 the previous day. The health unit continues to note that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to limited testing eligibility.
The total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 36,831.
The health unit said there were no additional deaths linked to the virus on Friday. That comes after two COVID-19 related deaths were recorded on Thursday. The local death toll currently stands at 375.
The number of resolved cases rose to 35,586. There are 870 known active cases in the region, down 23 over the past 24 hours.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 134 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 13,325 with 12,711 resolved. The COVID-19 death toll locally was unchanged at 161. There are currently 453 known active cases in the two counties.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario went down on Friday, while the provincial death toll went up.
Public health officials confirmed 20 additional deaths over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,812. The province said one of the 20 deaths actually occurred more than a month ago and was just added to the overall total as part of a data clean up.
There are currently 1,679 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals in Ontario, down 73 compared to Thursday. At this time last week, 1,591 hospitalizations were reported across the province.
Of the 1,679 people in hospital Friday, 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 209 patients with COVID-19, down nine from Thursday.
Ontario logged 2,760 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 1,255,338.
The number of resolved cases are up by 3,462 to 1,211,784.
In the last 24 hour period, 19,235 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 13.2 per cent, down from 16.1 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 32,728,953 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91.1 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7.3 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
