A woman in her 80s is the latest person in the London region to succumb to COVID-19.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the woman's death on Thursday. She was not associated with a long-term care or retirement home and had only had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the health unit confirmed. The woman's death is the third linked to the virus to be reported this week and brings the local death toll up to 229.
Nine new COVID-19 cases were logged on Thursday, down from 12 the previous day. So far this month, there have been 13 days in which the number of new infections recorded was under ten. Only July 2 and July 14 saw double-digit daily increases.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began is now 12,669, according to the health unit.
Hospitalizations in the area are down by one with nine COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are fewer than five COVID-19 patients listed in intensive care. The number of hospital staffers in self isolation after testing positive for the virus is below five.
There are currently no outbreaks at medical institutions, seniors' facilities or day care centres in the city or county. Recoveries reported over the past 24 hours have brought total resolved cases up to 12,378. Currently, there are 62 active cases in the region.
The number of cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County has gone up to 3,531. The majority of variants identified in the area are the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain from the U.K. However, the health unit is seeing more cases of the Delta variant or sublineages of it emerge locally with a total of 57.
Ahead of the move to Step 3 of the province's economic reopening plan on Friday, the health unit has announced it is lifting its last remaining Section 22 Class Order on indoor sports and fitness activities. The order, which was issued on October 24, applied to gyms, community centres and yoga and dance studios. It required class instructors to be masked at all times and limited class sizes to ten people.
"The cooperation of our local fitness clubs and recreation facilities in complying with this order has reduced the spread of COVID-19 and played a key role in the effort to fight the pandemic in London and Middlesex County,” said Dr. Chris Mackie, the region's medical officer of health. “With the move to the next step of the province’s reopening, we are grateful for the efforts of the fitness and recreation sector during the last nine months.”
High vaccination rates across London and Middlesex County reduced the need for the added control measure, the health unit said. Under Step 3, indoor sports and recreational fitness facilities will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Elgin and Oxford counties was two on Thursday. Southwestern Public Health's total caseload is now 3,913. There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths in the region leaving the death toll at 84. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,817 and there are 12 known active cases locally.
Provincially, the daily number of COVID-19 cases dropped back below 150.
Public health officials said there were 143 new cases on Thursday. That is down from the 153 infections logged on Wednesday. There were 146 cases reported on Tuesday and 114 on Monday. Ontario has now seen single-day case numbers below 200 for seven consecutive days.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Waterloo and Grey Bruce with 25 each and Toronto with 20.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 547,705.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified seven cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 144,762. Sixteen more cases of the P.1 (Gamma) variant were found for a total of 4,949, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant went up by one for a total of 1,465. There were 79 new cases involving the B.1.617 (Delta) variant for a total of 3,136.
Ten deaths were reported on Thursday, to increase the province’s death toll to 9,275.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are nine fewer people admitted with COVID-19. Of those in hospital, 168 are in intensive care and 114 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose by 168 to 536,987. There are currently 1,443 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 31,300 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 0.5 per cent, the lowest it has been since August 23, 2020.
The province has administered 17,641,856 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. More than 7.4 million adults in Ontario have also now received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
