COVID-19 cases in Middlesex London are likely to soar to 200 a day in the coming weeks, according to the region's medical officer of health.
Dr. Chris Mackie warned of the jump in cases during a briefing held on Monday.
"The rates that we are seeing right now in London and Middlesex are only a fraction of what is happening in the community. We saw testing volumes decline over the holiday period as cases climbed," said Mackie. "As those testing volumes increase we will see the case counts increase. I will be very surprised if we don't hit 200 cases per day before this starts to level off."
Middlesex-London Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie.
Mackie made the comments on the same day the Middlesex London Health unit reported a record high 135 COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths. Over the first four days of the year, there have been 362 infections and six deaths in Middlesex-London.
"The virus is spreading as quickly as ever," said Mackie.
Public health officials also disclosed Monday that nearly half of the residents at a Delaware long-term care home have tested positive for COVID-19. Thirty-seven of the approximately 80 residents at Middlesex Terrace are infected. An outbreak was declared at the facility on December 23.
"Staff are very much proactively getting vaccinated," said Mackie, who noted outbreaks are being declared at an increasing number of local long-term care homes. "Many of our homes are in difficult situations with multiple residents per room... it means the disease can spread rapidly."
Vaccination efforts, underway at the Western Fair Agriplex, are continuing to grow. Over the last 12 day period, 2,700 health care workers received the shot. Currently, about 300 people are vaccinated at the facility a day with plans to increase to 1,000 people a day shortly.
"The long-term care staff remain the priority for receiving the vaccine," said Dr. Adam Dukelow, chief medical officer at the London Health Sciences Centre. "We are pleased to be expanding the eligibility, making the vaccination program available to staff and physicians in emergency departments, critical care units, and units that care for COVID-19 patients from all hospitals within Huron Perth, Oxford, Middlesex, and Elgin counties in the coming days."
To date, Middlesex London has only been administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and has not yet received any doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
