Four more people, including three long-term care home residents, have died from COVID-19 in the London region.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said Tuesday the latest long-term care home deaths involved a man in his 60s and two women, one in her 100s, the other in her 60s. The fourth death was a man in his 70s who did not reside in an assisted living facility.
There have been 16 deaths locally since Sunday.
The region's death toll now stands at 156.
Another 68 new COVID-19 infections were logged by the health unit on Tuesday. That is up from 48 cases on Monday.
The area's total case count since the start of the pandemic is 5,149, with 3,529 of those resolved. Currently, there are 1,464 active COVID-19 cases in the region.
There are outbreaks at 15 local long-term care and retirement homes. To date, there have been 673 cases and 81 deaths linked to the facilities.
The London Health Sciences Centre has ongoing outbreaks on two units at Victoria Hospital and one unit at University Hospital. Fewer than five patients and five staff members have tested positive on the affected units at Victoria Hospital. Eight employees and no patients have contracted the virus through the outbreak at University. There are no deaths associated with the current hospital outbreak. In total, there are 25 inpatients at the LHSC with COVID-19, nine of whom are in critical care.
In Elgin and Oxford, there were 31 new COVID-19 infections recorded over the last 24 hours. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the two counties, said the latest cases bring the total case count to 2,099. Two more deaths were reported in the region to bring the death toll up to 47. More infections among staff and residents at Maple Manor Nursing Home in Tillsonburg have been identified. The health unit said there are now 83 residents and 52 staff members who have tested positive, up two more residents and 1 staffer from the previous day. Seventeen deaths are linked to the outbreak at the home.
There were 65 recoveries in the two counties for a total of 1,706 resolved cases since the start of the pandemic. There are currently 346 active cases in the area.
A technical error led to a dramatic drop in COVID-19 cases provincially.
Ontario logged 1,913 infections on Tuesday, down from 2,578 on Monday.
However, the decrease in the daily number of cases is not a true reflection of what is happening with the virus in the province.
"Due to a technical issue at Toronto Public Health, there is likely an underreporting of cases today (Tuesday)," Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted.
The regions with the highest number of new cases include Toronto with 550, Peel with 346, and York Region with 235.
Ontario's COVID-19 case total is now 242,277.
Forty-six more people died from the virus across the province. The epidemiology report indicates 20 of Tuesday’s deaths were among people living in long-term care homes.
The COVID-19 death toll in Ontario is now 5,479.
Recoveries are up to 209,183.
Hospitalizations from the virus are on the rise again with 1,626 people admitted. Of those, a record 400 are in the intensive care unit and 292 are on ventilators.
COVID-19 testing in down with just over 34,500 tests processed over the last 24 hours period. The positivity rate among those tested sits at 6.8 per cent.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, 224,134 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have made it into the arms of Ontarians.
