A man in his 70s and a woman in her 90s are the latest people in the London region to die from COVID-19.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported the deaths, along with 114 new infections on Wednesday. Neither of the two individuals lived in long-term care or a retirement home. Their deaths bring the local death toll up to 114. There has been at least one death associated with the virus reported everyday so far this year.
Along with reporting the 114 new cases, the health unit adjusted Tuesday's record case count. Twenty-three of the 184 infections recorded a day ago were later determined to be duplicates or involved people living in other health unit jurisdictions. The lower total case count for Tuesday of 161 is still a record single-day high for the region.
Since the pandemic began, Middlesex-London has had a total of 3,945 infections.
Outbreaks remain at eight local long-term care and retirement facilities. The latest was declared Tuesday at Oneida Long-Term Care home. An outbreak at Glendale Crossing has been resolved.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), which has been forced to canceled several surgeries this week due to increasing COVID-19 cases, has outbreaks on two units at Victoria Hospital. In both cases, there are fewer than five patients and fewer than five staff members infected. No deaths are associated with the outbreaks.
The number of inpatients with COVID-19 under the care of the LHSC has risen to 42, up from 38 the previous day. That includes 11 patients listed in intensive care. Three more hospital staffers have tested positive for the virus for a total of 30.
Four more London-area schools identified COVID-19 cases, all of which have since been resolved. The cases were at Strathroy District Collegiate, Lord Dorchester Secondary, Louise Arbour French Immersion, and Stoney Creek Public. Students began learning remotely full-time earlier this week. Elementary students are set to return to in-person learning on Monday, while high school students will continue full-time online learning until January 22.
Resolved cases rose by 65 over the last 24 hours to 2,859, leaving 972 active COVID-19 cases in the region.
In Elgin and Oxford, there were 52 new COVID-19 cases and zero deaths reported on Wednesday. Southwestern Public Health said that brings the total case count to 1,589 and leaves the death toll unchanged at 23. Recoveries are up to 1,159.
Maple Manor Nursing Home in Tillsonburg continues to deal with a significant outbreak that has infected 56 residents and 39 staff members and led to four deaths. PeopleCare Tavistock has 34 patients and 27 employees with COVID-19. Four deaths have also been linked to that outbreak.
Currently, there are 407 active COVID-19 cases in the two counties.
Provincially, 3,266 infections were logged Wednesday bringing Ontario's total number of cases since the pandemic began to more than 200,000.
While it took the province seven months to reach 100,000 total COVID-19 cases, it took just a month and a half for it to add 100,000 more. Ontario's total case count now sits at 200,626.
Areas with triple digit increases include Toronto (805), Peel (523), York Region (349), Windsor-Essex (208), and Waterloo (206).
There is now a record number of people in hospital across the province suffering from the virus. As of Wednesday, 1,463 Ontarians are being treated in hospital. Of those, a record 361 are in intensive care and a record 246 are on ventilators.
Thirty-seven additional deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, 20 of which were among residents of long-term care homes. Ontario’s death toll is now 4,767.
The number of resolved cases rose to 169,795. There are currently 26,064 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 51,000 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is roughly 8.5 per cent.
