COVID-19 related intensive care unit admissions in London saw a slight decline on Friday as the death toll went up.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said three women in their 70s, 80s, and 90s are the latest people locally to succumb to the virus. The woman in her 90s was the only one of the three associated with an area long-term care facility. So far this month, there have been 27 COVID-19 deaths reported in London and Middlesex County, including a record high single-day death toll of seven recorded on Thursday. The local death toll since the pandemic began currently stands at 327.
Another 117 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in the city and county, up from 115 on Thursday. 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 to testing eligibility.
The local total of confirmed infections since the pandemic began now sits at 30,604.
The number of resolved cases rose by 125 to 28,868. There are 1,408 known active cases in the region, down nine over the past 24 hours.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 87 COVID-19 inpatients in its care, down by four from Thursday. Hospitalization numbers in London have been steadily decreasing all week. Of those in London hospital, 20 are listed in intensive care. That is down by two over the past 24 hours and is the first time since Tuesday the number has dropped.
The LHSC noted 48 of the 87 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 39 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 140 employees infected, down 11 from Thursday. Cases among hospital staff have been on the decline since hitting a record 512 on January 12.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 87 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 10,758 with 10,128 resolved. The death toll has risen to 147 with three additional deaths recorded since Wednesday. There are currently 483 active cases in the two counties.
For the second straight day, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario were under 2,000.
Public health officials confirmed on Friday there are currently 1,829 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals across the province. That is down 68 from the previous day. Of the 1,829, roughly 54 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 46 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 435 patients with COVID-19, down ten from Thursday.
Ontario logged 2,907 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Public health officials have cautioned the daily counts are an underestimate of the spread of the virus in the province due to limited PCR testing eligibility.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,067,511.
There were 52 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll past the 12,000 mark to 12,040. The province said 50 of the latest deaths happened over the past month and two were from more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 3,697 to 1,027,117.
In the last 24 hour period, 20,936 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 11.7 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 31,199,694 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 89.6 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 6.7 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
