There was a jump in both the number of people in London hospital with COVID-19 and the number of infected hospital workers on Thursday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed it currently has 36 inpatients with COVID-19 in its care, up 11 since Monday. It is the highest number of COVID hospitalizations within the hospital network since late May. Of those hospitalized, there are seven being treated for COVID-19 and 29 being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive.
There are currently five or fewer COVID infected patients listed in the intensive care unit, unchanged from Monday. Children’s Hospital also has five or fewer inpatients with the virus, five or fewer of them are listed in paediatric critical care.
The number of hospital employees who have contracted COVID-19 also saw a large increase. The LHSC said it has 163 infected staffers, an increase of 30 since Monday. At this time last week there were 136 hospital employees who had tested positive for the virus.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 175 new cases locally since Monday. The health unit now only updates its COVID-19 dashboard twice a week and 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 39,992, according to the health unit.
There were no additional deaths related to the virus, leaving the death toll in London and Middlesex County at 412. The number of resolved cases is up to 39,034. Currently, there are 546 known active cases in the region, up from 492 a week ago.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, reported 107 more COVID-19 cases this week, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 14,509. There has not been a rise in the local death toll in a week with 173 COVID-19 deaths confirmed since March 2020. Resolved cases rose to 14,191 and there are now 145 known active cases in the two counties.
