Public health officials in London and Middlesex County are reporting the region’s 14th straight day of double-digit COVID-19 case increases.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed 23 new infections on Wednesday. That is up from 13 on Tuesday, but down from 30 on Monday and Sunday and 49 on Saturday. The last time there was a single-digit case bump in the area was on August 11 when just five new infections were logged.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began now sits at 13,217.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths in the city or county on Wednesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 233.
Resolved cases are up by 24 for a total of 12,752. Active cases in the area currently sit at 232.
Hospitalizations in the area held steady with ten COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care. There are also fewer than five hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
An outbreak remains at the Total Package Hockey Day Camp. At least three cases have been linked to that outbreak.
There were 29 more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 3,777. Of those, 3,385 have been identified as the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain, 124 are the P.1. (Gamma) variant, 262 are the B.1.617 (Delta) strain, and there are two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant. The health unit also noted a total of 189 cases have tested positive for a mutation.
Of the 523 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 86.5 per cent are among people who are not fully vaccinated.
Southwestern Public Health reported three more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,057. The death toll was unchanged at 84 with no additional deaths recorded since July 14. Resolved cases rose to 3,946. There are now 27 active cases in the two counties.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario climbed back above 600 following a one-day drop.
A total of 660 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is up from Tuesday’s 486 new cases and Monday's 639 cases. Prior to that 722 new infections were logged on Sunday and 689 new cases were recorded on Saturday.
Of the latest 660 new cases, 398 were among unvaccinated people, 74 involved partially vaccinated people, 135 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 53 had unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the highest number of new infections over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 151, York Region with 93, Hamilton with 86, and Peel Region with 52.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 561,297.
According to public health officials, there was one additional death related to the virus on Wednesday. The official death toll now stands at 9,472.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found 79 more lab confirmed cases over the past 24 hours of the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant. There are now a total of 145,918 cases of that strain. The number of cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant and the B.1.351(Beta) variant were unchanged leaving the totals at 5,221 and 1,500. Another 365 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant were also identified for a total of 8,030.
Hospitalizations in the province have decreased to 283 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s down by 12 patients from the previous day. There are 161 people in intensive care, up five from Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is up by five to 130.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 135 were unvaccinated, 11 have had one dose, and 30 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 154 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. There are seven people in the ICU who received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up 572 to 546,685. That leaves 5,140 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 26,406 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 17,369 on Tuesday. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped from 3 per cent to 2.4 per cent.
The province has administered just over 20.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are more than 9.8 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.
