It’s another sign that the COVID-19 situation in London and Middlesex County is steadily improving.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed on Thursday it has just 12 inpatients with the virus in its care, down by seven compared to the previous day. It is the first time since December 10 that there have only been a dozen COVID positive patients admitted to the hospital.
Of the 12 hospitalized, there are five being treated for COVID-19 and seven being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive.
There are currently no COVID infected patients listed in the intensive care unit, down from five or fewer on Wednesday. For a second straight day, there are also no children with the virus in the care of Children’s Hospital.
The hospital network said it currently has 51 infected staffers, up one over the past 24 hours. A week ago there were 60 employees who had tested positive.
The Middlesex London Health Unit recorded 15 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, up from nine on Wednesday. Daily case tallies are believed to be an underestimate of community spread since the provincial government limited eligibility for PCR testing at the end of December. The total number of cases locally since March of 2020 is now 38,471, according to the health unit.
There were no additional deaths linked to the virus for a second straight day. That leaves the local death toll at 401. The number of resolved cases is up to 37,917. Currently, there are 153 known active cases in the region, down from 258 a week ago.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, does not update its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Thursdays. Its next update will be released on Friday.
Ontario has shifted to a weekly reporting system and will release the COVID-19 data, including new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on Thursdays. However, Public Health Ontario’s COVID-19 Data Tool will not start displaying weekly updates until June 23. According to Public Health Ontario, this is to allow time to adapt the tool to align with the new weekly epidemiological summary.
