The Middlesex London Health Unit is reporting another COVID-19 death, the third one of the week.
A woman in her 90s is the latest to succumb to the virus, the health unit said on Friday. She was associated with a retirement home. Her death is the fifth link to COVID-19 locally so far this month and the third this week. On Tuesday, the health unit reported two women in their 80s had died from the virus. The local death toll currently stands at 352. Two previously reported deaths were removed from the overall total in accordance with a provincial change with how COVID-19 fatalities are recorded.
Another 83 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in the city and county, down from 85 on Thursday. However, the Middlesex London Health Unit has noted that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to changes made to testing eligibility.
The total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 32,501.
The number of resolved cases rose to 31,507. There are 642 known active cases in the region, up 27 over the past 24 hours.
Hospitalizations from the virus were unchanged on Friday, according to figures released by London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The hospital network currently has 38 COVID-19 inpatients in its care. Of those in the care of the LHSC, five or fewer are listed in intensive care.
The LHSC noted 15 of the 38 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 23 remaining people came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
There are currently 155 hospital workers who have tested positive for the virus, up one from Thursday.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 61 new COVID-19 cases reported Friday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said that brings the local total number of cases to 11,417 with 11,055 resolved. There has not been a COVID-19 death recorded in two weeks, leaving the local death toll unchanged at 149. There are currently 213 known active cases in the two counties.
Ontario has removed 411 deaths from its official COVID-19 death toll. The change comes as the Ontario government updates how it reports deaths to be consistent with the World Health Organization.
Deaths removed from the overall tally are ones where the virus did not cause or contribute to the death of an infected individual.
"On March 11, 2022, the count of COVID-19 deaths was changed to exclude fatal cases of COVID-19 where the cause of death was found to be unrelated to COVID-19. As a result, a number of deaths have been removed from the total counts," read a note explaining the change on the ministry's website.
The provincial death toll now stands at 12,227.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 717 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals across the province. That is down 25 from the previous day. Of the 717 in hospital, roughly 46 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 54 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 238 patients with COVID-19, down six from Thursday.
Ontario logged 2,130 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Public health officials have cautioned the daily counts are an underestimate of the spread of the virus in the province due to limited PCR testing eligibility.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,121,694.
The number of resolved cases are up by 2,523 to 1,093,499.
In the last 24 hour period, 14,571 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 11.7 percent, down from 10.7 per cent a week ago.
To date, the province has administered 31,850,821 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.7 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
