The number of people with COVID-19 in London hospital held steady on Tuesday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reported it has 33 patients admitted to hospital with the virus. That is unchanged from Monday. COVID-19 hospitalizations in the region have ranged from the low 30 to the low 40s all month. LHSC officials specified that 13 of the COVID-19 positive patients currently admitted are being treated for the virus. The other 20 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
Admissions to the intensive care unit held at five or fewer, the same level it has been at since Friday. Children’s Hospital has five or fewer COVID-19 positive patients in its care, with none in paediatric critical care.
The number of workers who have tested positive saw a slight increase on Tuesday. The LHSC reported 72 infected staffers, up two since the previous day. At this time last week there were 75 workers sick.
There are three ongoing level two outbreaks at University Hospital – one on the U7 clinical neurosciences unit, another on the U6 CVT unit, and the third on the U7 cardiology unit.
The Middlesex London Health Unit recorded 15 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday. That is down from 29 on Monday and is the fewest number of single day cases logged since November 30. The new infections bring the total case count since March 2020 to 38,162. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year.
For a sixth straight day, there were no additional COVID-19 deaths, leaving the local death toll at 391. Recoveries rose to 37,408. The health unit said there are 363 known active cases of the virus in the region, down 17 from Monday.
The local vaccination rate saw little movement over the past week. The latest figures released by the health unit show 93.9 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older who have received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 91.8 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses. Third and fourth doses have been administered to 57 per cent and 9.6 per cent of area residents.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,169,233 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. Its next update will be released on Wednesday.
There was a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths linked to the virus in Ontario on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 808 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up by 197 compared to figures released on Monday. Despite the increase reported Tuesday, hospitalization figures are still lower than this time last week when 890 people were hospitalized with the virus.
The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers over the past 24 hours shows roughly 41 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 59 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of COVID-19 positive people admitted to intensive care went down by seven to 140. Last Tuesday, there were 157 people in the ICU.
Ontario logged 590 new cases Tuesday. However, the single-day tally is 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 1,303,033.
There were 15 additional deaths from the virus reported over the past 24 hours. One of those deaths occurred more than a month ago and was just added to the total count as part of a data cleanup. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 13,241.
Public health officials confirmed there were 9,535 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 8.3 per cent, down from 9.1 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 33,358,097 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91.3 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 7.3 million people or 57 per cent have received a booster shot.
