For the first time this year, the daily COVID-19 figures for Middlesex London did not include any new deaths from the virus.
Up until Thursday, at least one COVID-19 death had been reported each day in January for a total of 71 lives lost. January is the region's deadliest month of the pandemic, with more than double the number of deaths than the previous deadliest months of April and December. During each of those two months, 35 people succumbed to the virus.
The area's death toll stands at 173.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 39 new COVID-19 infections for the second day in a row. It is the fifth straight day daily cases have been below 50.
Since the start of the pandemic there has been a total of 5,561 cases in the region.
Seven more people recovered from the virus Thursday, bringing the total resolved cases to 3,771. That leaves the known active cases at 1,617.
An outbreak remains in the adult emergency department at the London Health Sciences Centre's (LHSC) University Hospital. Ten staff members have contracted the virus, but no patients have become infected. There are no deaths linked to the outbreak. The number of inpatients with COVID-19 in the hospital's care has risen to 20, with eight listed in intensive care.
The Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre continues to see spread of the virus from an outbreak declared at the jail on January 18. To date, 19 inmates and 13 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Public health officials anticipate those numbers will continue to increase due to the close quarters within the facility.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford, recorded 24 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. The latest infections bring the area’s total caseload to 2,264. There was one additional death reported, to bring the death toll to 56. Recoveries rose to 2,021. There are a total 187 active cases in the region.
Ontario’s daily COVID-19 caseload is back up over 2,000.
Public health officials reported 2,093 new infections Thursday, up from 1,670 the previous day and ending three days of declining case numbers.
Toronto led the way for the most new cases with 700. The city was followed by Peel with 331, York Region with 228, and Niagara with 123.
Ontario’s total number of cases now stands at 262,463.
Fifty-six more people died from the virus across the province, increasing the death toll to 6,014. Of Thursday's reported deaths, 31 were in long-term care homes.
Public health officials said the number of resolved case across the province now total 234,971.
The number of infected requiring hospital care in Ontario is up to 1,338. Of those in hospital, 358 are in the intensive care unit and 276 are on ventilators.
In the last 24 hour period, nearly 64,664 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now roughly 3.3 per cent.
Public health officials said as of 8 p.m. Wednesday 317,240 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province. They also admitted that only 55,286 people have received both shots to be considered fully inoculated, down from 96,459 reported the previous day. The province said an error on its COVID-19 vaccine tracker web page led to the error.
