After seven straight days of double-digit increases, the number of new COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County has dropped back below 10.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported nine new infections on Friday, down from 23 on Thursday. It is the first time this week the region has seen a single-digit increase in daily cases. The total case count for the London-area now stands at 1,323, with 114 of those cases reported since Sunday.
"We're in a very precarious stage in our fight against #COVID19, but it's still well within our ability to control," London Mayor Ed Holder tweeted Friday.
Additional cases were identified at two London schools on Thursday evening. The Thames Valley District School Board confirmed positive cases of the virus at Westminster Secondary School and Eagle Heights Public School. The new cases are not linked to infections identified at the schools less than a week ago.
Outbreaks of the virus continue on two units at University Hospital (fourth floor general medicine and ninth floor orthopaedic) and at Henley Place LTC Residence.
Public health officials reported 13 additional people have recovered from the virus, bringing the area's number of resolved cases to 1,119. Currently, London-Middlesex has 141 active cases.
There has not been a death in the region in nearly a week, leaving the number of COVID-19 related deaths at 63.
The number of new COVID-19 cases was also down Friday in Elgin and Oxford counties. Southwestern Public Health, the region's health unit, recorded four additional infections. That brings the case count up to 415. Public health officials said Thursday they are working to stop a surge of new cases in Norwich Township, where 11 infections have been confirmed since November 4.
Eight more people recovered from the virus to bring the total number of resolved cases to 366. The death toll is unchanged at five with no new deaths since July. There are currently 44 active cases in the two counties.
For the eighth consecutive day, Ontario is reporting more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases.
Public health officials said there were 1,396 new infections on Friday, down from a record 1,575 on Thursday. Of the new cases, 1,035 were in the COVID-19 hotspots of Toronto (440), Peel (440) and York Region (155).
The total number of cases in the province has risen to 91,180.
There were an additional 19 deaths linked to the virus across the province to bring the death toll up to 3,312. Ontario has averaged just under 15 COVID-19 linked deaths a day over the past week.
The number of resolved cases rose to 76,238 with 1,018 additional recoveries reported.
There are currently 452 COVID-19 infected patients in hospitals across the province, including 106 in the intensive care unit and 67 on ventilators to breathe.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 40,500 COVID-19 tests were processed.
