For the first time since late last month, the number of active cases of COVID-19 in London and Middlesex County has slid back below 200.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 21 new infections on Wednesday, up from 12 on Tuesday and 18 on Monday. The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began sits at 13,554. However with 28 additional resolved cases - bringing total resolved infections to 13,120 - active cases in the city and county fell to 199. The last time the number of active infections was under 200 was on August 20 when there were 152.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths in the region on Wednesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 235.
Hospitalizations in the area are down by one with ten COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care and there are five or fewer in Children's Hospital. There are also five or fewer hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
An outbreak remains at McCormick Home in London. The facility is the only long-term care or retirement home in the region currently dealing with an outbreak. Daycare centres and schools are also outbreak free.
There were 49 more cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 4,030. All of the new cases have been identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) strain for a total of 516. There have been a total of 3,384 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain, 124 cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant, and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) strain in the region since the health unit began tracking variants of the virus.
Of the 755 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 83.4 per cent are among people who are not fully vaccinated or have not reached full immunity.
Southwestern Public Health reported one more COVID-19 case on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,115. The death toll was unchanged at 85 with no additional deaths recorded since August 31. Resolved cases rose to 3,997. There are now 33 active cases in the two counties.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario remained below 600 for the third consecutive day.
A total of 554 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is down from Tuesday’s 581 and Monday's 564 new cases Sunday and Saturday saw daily case counts of 811 and 944.
Of the latest 554 new cases, 319 were among unvaccinated people, 56 involved partially vaccinated people, 136 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 44 had unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the highest number of new infections over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 149, Windsor-Essex with 47, Peel Region with 46, and York Region with 41.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 571,332.
According to public health officials, there were 16 additional deaths related to the virus recorded Wednesday, but five of those deaths occurred more than two months ago. They were added into Wednesday's numbers as part of an ongoing data cleanup. The official death toll now stands at 9,569.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found two new lab confirmed cases over the past 24 hours of the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant. There are currently a total of 146,437 cases of that strain in the province. The number of cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant and the B.1.351(Beta) variant were unchanged leaving the totals at 5,223 and 1,501. Another 361 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant were also identified for a total of 13,008.
Hospitalizations in the province have increased to 375 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s up by 80 patients from the previous day. There are 194 people in intensive care, up two from Tuesday and the number of people on a ventilator is up by two to 167.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health shows of the patients with COVID-19 on general hospital wards, 162 were unvaccinated, 14 have had one dose, and 28 were fully vaccinated. Of those in the ICU, 186 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status. The remaining eight had received both doses.
Resolved cases across the province are up 770 to 555,723. That leaves 6,040 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 21,840 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped slightly from 3.4 per cent to 3.3 per cent.
The province has hit another vaccine milestone having administered just over 21 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are more than 10 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.
