Hospitalizations from COVID-19 in London were down on Friday, but the region also recorded two more deaths from the virus.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said a man in his 60s and a woman in her 80s succumbed to the virus. The elderly woman was associated with a long-term care home. Twenty-nine COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in London and Middlesex County over the past two weeks, including two days in which the single-day death toll hit a near record high of six. The overall death toll locally since the pandemic began is now 297.
Another 217 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in the city and county, down slightly from Thursday’s 220. However, the Middlesex London Health Unit has noted that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to changes made late last month to testing eligibility.
The local total of infections since the pandemic began now sits at 28,646.
The number of resolved cases rose by 249 to 26,308. There are 2,041 known active cases in the region, down 23 over the past 24 hours.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 145 COVID-19 inpatients in its care, down 21 from Thursday. Of those, 22 are listed in intensive care. That is up three over the past 24 hours.
The LHSC noted 84 of the 145 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 61 remaining people came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The number of hospital staff who tested positive for the virus has gone down. There are now 189 employees infected, down 11 from Thursday and 108 from a week ago. It is the third time this week the number of COVID-19 positive workers at the LHSC was under 200.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 74 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said that brings the local total number of cases to 10,053 with 9,194 resolved. The death toll has risen to 138 with one additional death recorded over the past 24 hours – an Oxford man in his 90s who was linked to a long-term care home outbreak. There are currently 721 active cases in the two counties.
Ontario recorded another drop in the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 on Friday.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 3,535 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals across the province. That is down 110 from the previous day. Of the 3,535, roughly 56 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 44 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 607 patients with COVID-19, up eight from Thursday.
Ontario logged 5,337 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That is down from 5,852 new infections Thursday. Public health officials have cautioned the daily counts are an underestimate of the spread of the virus in the province due to changes to PCR testing eligibility.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,021,436.
There were 68 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, increasing the provincial death toll to 11,298. The province said 67 of those deaths happened over the past 13 days and one was from more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 7,906 to 958,701.
In the last 24 hour period, 32,672 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 14.4 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 30,403,149 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 89.1 per cent of people 12 and older having received both shots required to be fully inoculated. More than 6.2 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
