There was no change in the number of people with COVID-19 in London hospitals on Friday.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed 48 inpatients with the virus remain in its care, the same number as reported on Thursday. That makes this the second day this week hospitalizations have been under 50. The hospital network noted 18 of the 48 infected inpatients were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 30 others came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
The LHSC has five or fewer patients with COVID listed in intensive care, down from seven on Thursday. Children’s Hospital has five or fewer inpatients with the virus, unchanged from the previous day.
The number of infected hospital workers also saw a decrease over the past 24 hours. The LHSC said there are currently 278 employees who have tested positive, a drop of five.
Another 95 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Friday by the Middlesex London Health Unit, up from 84 the previous day. The health unit continues to note that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to limited testing eligibility.
The total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 36,196.
The health unit said there were no additional deaths linked to the virus on Friday. It is the first time in two days there were no COVID-19 related deaths in the area. The death of a woman in her 80s was recorded on Wednesday, while three women, two in their 60s and one in her 80s, were reported on Thursday to have succumbed to the virus. The local death toll currently stands at 371.
The number of resolved cases rose to 34,852. There are 973 known active cases in the region, up five over the past 24 hours.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 114 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 13,021 with 12,398 resolved. The COVID-19 death toll locally was unchanged at 158. There are currently 465 known active cases in the two counties.
Ontario saw an increase in both COVID-19 ICU admissions and the provincial death toll on Friday.
Public health officials confirmed 27 additional deaths over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,678. The province said one death was removed from the overall total as part of a data clean up.
There are currently 1,591 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals in Ontario, down 35 compared to Thursday. At this time last week, 1,427 hospitalizations were reported across the province.
Of the 1,591 people in hospital Friday, roughly 45 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 54 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 214 patients with COVID-19, up seven from Thursday.
Ontario logged 4,668 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 1,234,240.
The number of resolved cases are up by 3,626 to 1,188,438.
In the last 24 hour period, 20,828 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 16.1 per cent, down from 18.8 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 32,536,661 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 91.1 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7.2 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
