The number of new COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County jumped to a high not seen since January as the region recorded its second death in two days.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 97 new infections on Wednesday. That is more than double the 46 cases recorded on Tuesday. The last time the daily case count was this high was on January 16 when 117 infections were reported. New cases have been on the rise in the city and county for a week and a half. The surge saw Middlesex London shifted back into the red-control tier of Ontario's COVID-19 Response Framework on Tuesday.
The latest cases pushed the region's total number since the pandemic began above 7,000 to 7,091.
A man in his 80s, who was not associated with a long-term care or retirement home, has become the region's third COVID-19 related death in five days. A man in his 80s succumbed to the virus on Tuesday, three days after a woman in her 80s died. The local death toll is now 188.
An outbreak has been declared at the Parkwood Institute Mental Health Care Building unit G5. That outbreak is in addition to ones at Henley Place and Kensington Village. Two local elementary schools (Riverbend Academy in Delaware and Woodland Heights Public in London) and three Western University residences (Elgin Hall, Ontario Hall, and Saugeen-Maitland Hall) also have active outbreaks. The health unit confirmed, the outbreak at Essex Hall was declared over Tuesday.
Thirty-three more people have recovered from the virus to bring the number of resolved cases to 6,398. There are currently 505 known active cases in the area.
Southwestern Public Health recorded 18 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths on Wednesday. That is up from a dozen new infections the previous day. The latest cases puts Elgin and Oxford counties’ total up to 2,827 and leaves the death toll at 69. Resolved cases rose to 2,666, leaving 92 active cases in the region. Central Public School has become the third school in Woodstock to be closed because of the virus. The Thames Valley District school board announced the temporary shutdown after widespread exposure to the virus required a high number of staff and students to quarantine. Students will learn remotely until at least April 19.
Daily case numbers in Ontario remained above 2,300 for a second consecutive day.
According public health officials, 2,333 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is down ever so slightly from Tuesday's 2,336 cases and marks the seventh day daily numbers have exceeded 2,000.
Regions with the highest case counts continue to be Toronto with 785 and Peel with 433. That is followed by York Region with 222, Hamilton with 153, Ottawa with 124, and Durham with 120.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found 1,229 more lab confirmed cases involving variants of concern over the past 24 hours. Further testing of those variants of concern shows there are now a total of 1,229 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, 70 cases of the B.1.351 variant, and 92 cases of the the P.1. variant in the province.
Ontario's total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 349,903.
Fifteen deaths were reported over the past 24 hours to bring the province’s death toll to 7,366.
Hospitalizations in the province continue to rise with 1,111 COVID-19 positive patients admitted. Of those, 396 are in intensive care and 252 are on ventilators.
Resolved cases across the province are up to 322,382. That leaves 20,155 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 52,532 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 36,071 the previous day. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped to 4.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent.
The province has administered 2,192,253 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. A total of 315,820 people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.
