While COVID-19 hospitalizations in the London-area held steady on Tuesday, the death toll rose by two.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the deaths of a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s over the previous 24 hours. The elderly woman was associated with a local long-term care home, the health unit said. The latest two deaths bring the death toll from the virus in London and Middlesex County to 317. Of those deaths, 17 occurred this month alone.
The number of people in London hospital with COVID-19 was unchanged while admissions to the intensive care unit were down. The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed it currently has 119 inpatients with the virus. Twenty-two of the 119 patients are listed in intensive care (down by three from Monday) and five or fewer are in the care of Children’s Hospital.
LHSC officials specified that of 74 the COVID-19 positive patients are being treated for the virus. The remaining 45 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 six from Monday to 141. That is the lowest staff infection numbers at the LHSC have been in a month.
Seventy new COVID-19 infections were logged in the city and county over the past 24 hours, to bring the total case count since March 2020 to 30,230. Daily case tallies have been considered an underestimate of community spread because of limits placed on testing eligibility at the end of last year. Resolved cases are up to 28,257 and there are currently 1,444 active cases locally.
New figures released by the health unit on Tuesday show 93 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have now received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 90.7 per cent in the same age bracket have had two doses. People aged 70 to 74 are leading for most booster shots received with 83.6 per cent having got their third dose. On the other end of the spectrum, only 5.7 per cent of residents aged 12 to 17 have had a booster shot.
As of Saturday, there have been 1,087,630 doses administered locally since December 2020.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, no longer updates its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Tuesdays. It’s next update will be released on Wednesday.
Ontario recorded 42 more COVID-19 deaths and a jump in hospitalizations on Tuesday.
According to public health officials, there are 2,254 COVID-19 positive inpatients being treated in hospitals across the province. That is up 99 since Monday. The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers shows roughly 56 per cent were admitted to hospital because of COVID-19. The remaining 44 per cent were admitted for other reasons but tested positive for COVID-19.
As of Tuesday, 12 fewer COVID-19 positive people were in intensive care for a total of 474. Eighty-two per cent of those individuals were admitted because of the virus.
Ontario logged 2,092 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 1,058,241.
The 42 latest deaths from the virus occurred over the past 26 days, according to public health officials. The total death toll from the virus in Ontario now stands at 11,878.
Public health officials confirmed there were 15,788 COVID-19 tests processed over the past 24 hours. The test positivity rate is now 14.2 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 31,064,758 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 89.5 per cent of people 12 and older having received two doses. More than 6.6 million people have received a booster shot.
