The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed another COVID-19 related death on Monday, as hospitalizations from the virus inched closer to 50.
A man in his 80s is the latest person to succumb to the virus, the health unit said. The man was linked to a retirement home and is the fifth person in London and Middlesex County to die from COVID-19 so far this month. His death brings the local death toll up to 366.
Transmission within the community remains relatively high, with 266 new cases logged over the weekend in the city and county. The health unit said 59 of the infections were recorded Monday, 100 were reported Sunday, and 107 were confirmed Saturday. Public health officials have cautioned 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 35,107 since the pandemic began.
Resolved cases in the area went up to 33,700 and the number of known active cases went up by 46 to 1,041 on Monday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed on Monday 47 COVID-19 positive people are currently in the hospital’s care. That is an increase of six people since Friday. According to hospital officials, 20 of those inpatients are being treated for the virus, while the remaining 27 are being treated for other ailments but have also tested positive for COVID. The intensive care unit has five or fewer patients with COVID-19 admitted, down at least one from Friday.
The number of patients with the virus at Children’s Hospital stands at five or fewer, unchanged from Friday.
The number of hospital workers who have tested positive for the virus saw a slight decrease on Monday. There are 288 infected staffers at the LHSC, down six over the past 72 hours. A week ago there were 229 employees who had contracted COVID.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit that covers Elgin and Oxford counties, reported 139 new cases since Friday. The latest infections bring the two counties’ total case count to 12,506. There was one additional death recorded over the weekend to bring the death toll to 157. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 11,917. There are 432 known active cases locally.
Provincially, COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions both saw increases on Monday.
There are currently 1,090 people with the virus in hospital, up 113 from Sunday. A week ago there were 857 COVID positive people in Ontario hospitals. Intensive care unit (ICU) admissions increased by 11 to 184. While both hospitalizations and ICU numbers are up, they could actually be higher than what was released Monday as not all hospitals report over the weekend, public health officials reminded.
Ontario logged 2,401 new infections over the past 24 hours. But single-day case counts are considered to be an underestimation of community spread as the Ford government restricted eligibility for publicly-funded COVID-19 tests at the end of December. The latest cases put Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic to 1,198,319.
Public health officials confirmed three additional COVID-19 deaths on Monday. The provincial death toll since the pandemic began two years ago stands at 12,566.
The number of resolved cases are up by 1,875 to 1,154,050.
In the last 24 hour period, 12,149 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 17.6 per cent, down from 19 per cent a week ago.
There have been 32,214,645 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ontario as of Sunday night. Nearly 93 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine, while 91 per cent have been given their second dose. To date, more than 7.2 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
