The Middlesex London Health Unit is celebrating another COVID-19 vaccination milestone.
New figures released on Tuesday show 90.2 per cent of those 12 and older living in the city and county have received two doses of the vaccine. Just under 50 per cent of those in the same age bracket have received a third dose and 92.5 per cent have been given one shot. In the 5 to 11 age group, which got the go ahead to receive the pediatric Pfizer vaccine late last November, 56.3 per cent have received a single dose.
In total there have been 1,052,828 doses administered locally since December 2020.
The latest vaccination data comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations in London held relatively steady for a second straight day. The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed it has 149 inpatients with the virus, up six from Monday but down from 166 a week ago. Twenty-one of the 149 patients are listed in intensive care (down three from Monday) and five or fewer are in the care of Children’s Hospital.
LHSC officials specified that of 93 the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The remaining 56 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID-19.
The number of hospital employees who have currently tested positive for COVID-19 is down by 15 from Monday to 199. A week ago there were 374 staff with infections.
New outbreaks involving both patients and staff were reported on University Hospital’s General Medicine U4 north east and east corridors and at Victoria Hospital’s Acute Medicine and Nephrology Inpatients units. There are currently nine active outbreaks at the two hospitals.
A man in his 70s associated with a long-term care home in the region is the latest person to succumb to the virus, the health unit confirmed on Tuesday. His death is the sixth since Saturday and the 29th this month. The local death toll now sits at 288,
Another 159 new COVID-19 cases were also logged over the past 24 hours, up from 140 on Monday. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year.
The area’s total case count since March of 2020 stands at 28,016.
Resolved cases are up by 316 to 25,512. There are currently 2,216 active cases locally, down 161 from Monday.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were four additional COVID-19 deaths, three people in their 80s and one woman in her 90s. Two of those deaths were linked to an outbreak at a seniors’ facility. The area death toll is now 136. Southwestern Public Health recorded 65 new cases Tuesday, to bring the overall infection total since the pandemic began to 9,843. Resolved cases rose to 8,964 with 743 known active cases remaining in the area.
Ontario recorded 64 more COVID-19 deaths and an increase in the number of people in intensive care on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 4,008 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up 147 since Monday. The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 55 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 45 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, 11 more COVID-19 positive people were in intensive care for a total of 626. Eighty-five per cent of those individuals were admitted because of the virus.
Ontario logged 3,424 new cases over the past 24 hours. The single-day tally has become 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 1,004,879.
There were 64 additional deaths reported, bringing the provincial death toll from the virus to 11,068. One of those deaths occurred on Monday and the rest happened within the last month.
The province did not release the number of tests performed over the past 24 hours.
To date, the province has administered 30,166,800 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 89 per cent of people 12 and older having received both shots required to be fully inoculated. More than 6 million people have received a booster shot.
