The London region has reached another grim milestone, recording its 200th COVID-19 death.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the deaths of a man and woman, both in their 60s, on Friday to bring the area death toll to 200. Neither of the latest two people to die with the virus were linked to a long-term care or retirement home. There have been 12 COVID-19 related deaths in April, the highest monthly total since January when a whopping 75 deaths were reported.
The latest deaths come as another 76 new COVID-19 cases were logged locally. That is down from 104 on Thursday and 140 on Wednesday and closes out what has been the worst month of the pandemic for new infections in London and Middlesex. There were 3,258 new cases recorded in April, bringing the total caseload to 10,382.
Recoveries rose by 84 over the past 24 hours for a total of 9,238. There are currently 944 known active cases in the region.
Hospitalizations in the city and county fell by eight on Friday to leave 87 COVID-19 positive patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, 42 are listed in the intensive care unit. There are also eight employees who have tested positive for the virus.
The number of variants of concern identified in the area held steady at 1,571. All but four of the cases involving variants of concern confirmed in the region are the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the U.K. There are 269 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
As of Friday, anyone born in 1966 or earlier became eligible to book an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine at mass immunization clinics through the health unit's online booking system. Additional appointments for people aged 55-plus were opened up Friday afternoon at the North London Optimist Community Centre for next week. Middlesex London Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie noted the added spots were thanks to an additional allotment of Pfizer doses allocated to this region.
More COVID #vaccine! @MLHealthUnit notified late yesterday about additional Pfizer allocated to this region for next week. This means additional appointments for people 55+ (and others who are eligible) at North London Optimist Community Centre on May 6th! https://t.co/r5lU0BZYYO
— Dr. Chris Mackie (@Healthmac) April 30, 2021
Appointments can be booked at covidvaccinelm.ca or by calling 226-289-3560 between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily.
To date, London and Middlesex have administered more than 160,000 doses of the vaccine.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there was a slight dip in the number of new cases. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said there were 14 new COVID-19 infections recorded Friday, down from 19 on Thursday. The region’s total number of cases is now 3,406, with 3,192 resolved. There has not been a COVID-19 related death in the region in a week, leaving the death toll unchanged at 76. Currently, there are 138 active cases in the two counties. As of last Saturday, 25.9 per cent of local residents have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2 per cent have been given both doses.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario was back above 3,800 for the second straight day.
Public health officials confirmed 3,887 new infections across the province on Friday. That’s a minor increase from 3,871 on Thursday.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases on Friday with 1,331, followed by Peel with 871, York Region with 267, Durham with 208, and Hamilton with 204.
Ontario's total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 463,364.
There have been another 3,016 new cases of the variant originating from the U.K. in Ontario. That brings the province’s total number of B.1.1.7. cases to 65,960. Cases of the B.1.351 and P.1 variants are up by 31 and 144 for a total of 274 and 645.
There were 21 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours. The provincial death toll is now 8,050.
Hospitalizations in Ontario are down a bit with 2,201 COVID-19 positive patients admitted. Of those, a record 883 are in intensive care and 632 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 417,252. There are currently 38,062 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 53,074 COVID-19 tests were processed, down from 56,939 the previous day. The province positivity rate is currently 7.4 per cent, down from 7.6 per cent on Thursday.
To date, the province has administered 5,139,984 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 371,110 people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.
