The London-area is reporting a record number of new COVID-19 cases for the second straight day.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 184 newly confirmed cases and four deaths linked to the virus on Tuesday. That breaks the previous record of 135 infections set one day earlier.
The region's total case count since the start of the pandemic is now 3,856. Of those, 542 cases were reported over the last five days.
The four deaths are among a man in his 70s associated with a long-term care home, a man in his 60s, and two women, one in her 90s and one in her 70s.
The death toll is now 112 with ten deaths reported since the start of the year.
The London Health Sciences Centre currently has 38 inpatients with COVID-19, including nine who are listed in the intensive care unit. Twenty-seven staff members are positive for the virus. Outbreaks remain on two units at Victoria Hospital - D7-200 Medicine and D5-300 Medicine. The number of infections related to each outbreak is less than five patients and fewer than five staff members. To date, there have been no deaths associated with the outbreaks.
The health unit declared outbreaks at Peoplecare Oak Crossing, and Westmount Gardens resolved on Monday. That leaves eight local long-term care and retirement homes dealing with outbreaks. Facilities with outbreaks are Chelsey Park, Country Terrace, Earls Court Village, Extendicare, Glendale Crossing, Middlesex Terrace, Mount Hope Centre for Long-Term Care, and Oakcrossing Retirement Living.
Lord Dorchester Secondary School has been added to the list of schools with outbreaks. The other three schools on the list are Covenant Christian school, École secondaire catholique Monseigneur-Bruyère, and A.B. Lucas secondary. Elementary and secondary schools have not yet reopened for in-person classes since the winter break. Students began, what will be at least a week depending on grade, of full-time remote learning Monday and Tuesday.
Resolved cases have risen to 2,794, leaving 950 active cases in London and Middlesex County.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, reported seven additional deaths and 67 new infections on Tuesday. This increases the death toll to 23 and the total case count to 1,537. With nearly 60 more recoveries over the past 24 hours, resolved cases stand at 1,112.
The health unit urged the public to remain vigilant in helping to stop the spread of the virus after 90 cases were identified at a Tillsonburg long-term care home. Maple Manor Nursing Home has had an outbreak since December 12 with 55 residents and 35 employees infected. Four deaths are associated with the outbreak.
Currently, there are 402 active COVID-19 cases in Elgin and Oxford.
The province logged 3,128 cases Tuesday, down slightly from the 3,270 infections reported the previous day.
Of the new cases, 1,928 were in the hotspots of Toronto (778), Peel (614), York Region (213), Durham (172), and Hamilton (151).
There have been 197,360 COVID-19 cases in Ontario since March.
There were 51 more deaths linked to COVID-19 in Ontario. Twenty-two of those deaths were among residents of long-term care homes. The provincial death toll is now 4,730.
The number of resolved cases rose to 166,790.
There are currently 1,347 COVID-19 infected patients in hospitals across the province, including 352 in the intensive care unit and 245 on ventilators.
The province processed 35,152 COVID-19 tests in the last 24 hour period. Ontario's positivity rate currently sits at 9.4 per cent, slightly below the record high of 9.7 per cent set last week and matched on Monday.
There are currently 25,840 active cases across the province.
