The number of children with COVID-19 being treated in London hospital shot up over the weekend.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) said on Monday it has ten inpatients with the virus admitted to Children’s Hospital. That is at least double from a reported “five or fewer” that were listed at Children’s on Friday. The last time there were this many COVID-19 positive kids admitted to Children’s was on February 14. Five or fewer of the COVID-19 positive children in hospital are listed in paediatric critical care.
The LHSC has a total of 59 inpatients being treated for COVID-19, up 11 over the past 72 hours. According to hospital officials, 25 of the COVID positive inpatients are being treated for the virus, while the remaining 34 are being treated for other ailments but have tested positive for COVID.
The intensive care unit has five or fewer inpatients with COVID-19, unchanged since Friday.
The number of hospital workers who have tested positive for the virus saw a decrease on Monday. There are 240 infected staffers at the LHSC, down 38 over the past 72 hours.
The Middlesex London Health Unit recorded one additional COVID-19 death and 273 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend.
The latest death was recorded on Saturday. There were no additional deaths added to the count on Sunday or Monday. The local death toll since the pandemic began is now 372, with 11 of those deaths occurring this month.
There were 30 new cases recorded on Monday, 102 new cases on Sunday, and 141 new cases on Saturday. However, public health officials caution 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 36,479 since the pandemic began. Resolved cases are up to 35,154. The number of active cases locally went down by 20 since Friday to 953 on Monday.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit that covers Elgin and Oxford counties, reported 315 new cases since Friday. The latest infections bring the two counties’ total case count to 12,908. There were two additional deaths recorded over the weekend to bring the death toll to 158. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 12,322. There are 428 known active cases locally.
Provincially, COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions both saw increases on Monday.
There are currently 1,455 people with the virus in hospital, up 93 from Sunday. A week ago there were 1,301 COVID positive people in Ontario hospitals. Intensive care unit (ICU) admissions increased by seven to 219. 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 2,028 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 continues to restrict eligibility for publicly-funded COVID-19 tests. The latest cases put Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic to 1,244,186.
Public health officials confirmed two additional COVID-19 deaths on Monday. The provincial death toll since the pandemic began two years ago stands at 12,736.
The number of resolved cases are up by 2,641 to 1,197,545.
In the last 24 hour period, 13,247 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 15.3 per cent, down from 18.7 per cent a week ago.
There have been 32,601,763 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ontario as of Sunday night. Figures indicate 93 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine, while 91.1 per cent have been given their second dose. To date, more than 7.2 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
