A woman in her 70s has become the London region’s latest COVID-19 death.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed on Tuesday the woman, who was associated with a long-term care home, succumbed to the virus. Her death increased the local death toll to 441.
Another 173 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed by the health unit since it last updated its COVID-19 dashboard last Thursday. However, public health officials caution that single-day case numbers are an underestimate of community spread due to eligibility changes that limit who can receive a test. The area’s total case count stands at 42,771 since the pandemic began.
Resolved cases are up to 41,851 and the number of active cases locally decreased by 56 to 479 over the past five days.
The health unit’s next scheduled COVID-19 update will be on Thursday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) said it currently has 58 patients with the virus in its care. That is an increase of five since late last week. According to hospital officials, 19 of the current inpatients are being treated for the virus, while the other 39 are being treated for other ailments but have tested positive for COVID.
The intensive care unit has six infected patients, up from five or fewer last Thursday. At Children’s Hospital, there are no inpatients with the virus. The first time this month no kids have been admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19.
The number of hospital workers who have tested positive dropped by 24 on Tuesday. There are now 76 infected staffers at the LHSC.
The hospital network is reporting two level two COVID-19 outbreaks at University hospital. One is on the U4 Medicine unit, the other is on the U6 CVT Inpatient unit. There are no current outbreaks at Victoria Hospital.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit that covers Elgin and Oxford counties, only updates its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Wednesdays, while the province issues its weekly updated numbers on Thursdays.
