Daily COVID-19 cases in the London region neared 30 on Thursday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 28 new infections over the last 24 hours, up from 19 on Wednesday and 22 on Tuesday. Out of the past nine days, daily numbers have fallen below the 20 case mark only three times.
The total number of cases in the area since the pandemic began is now 6,506 with 6,156 resolved, and 185 deaths. There has not been a death in the city or county since March 8.
Currently, there are 165 active cases in the region.
Outbreaks continue at five local seniors' facilities, two schools, and one unit at University Hospital.
The Thames Valley District school board has confirmed two previously reported cases at Sir Arthur Currie Public in London and Strathroy District Collegiate have now been identified as variants of concern. Further testing is being done to confirm which variants they are. Both schools remain open.
Efforts to vaccinate area residents against the virus ramped up on Thursday with the opening of a third mass vaccination clinic. The site at the North London Optimist Community Centre will be able to administer 2,000 shots per day once operating at full capacity. The region's two other vaccination clinics are located at the Western Fair District Agriplex and the Caradoc Community Centre in Mt. Brydges.
There was a slight increase in daily cases recorded Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties. Southwestern Public Health reported five new infections, one more than the previous day, for a total case count of 2,658. The death toll is unchanged at 67 with no additional deaths reported since February 20. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the counties is , 2,519 leaving 72 known active cases.
Provincially, the number of new cases remained above 1,500 for a second consecutive day.
Public health officials logged 1,553 new infections across the province Thursday. That is up from 1,508 Wednesday and 1,074 Tuesday.
Regions with the most new cases were Toronto with 404, Peel with 294, and York Region with 176.
Variants of the virus continue to increase in Ontario with 639 more found over the past 24 hours, according to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary. Confirmed cases of the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7 have reached 1,136. The number of lab confirmed cases of the South African variant, B.1.351, stands at 47. There are also a total of 35 cases of the Brazil variant, P.1.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 323,509.
Fifteen deaths were reported since Wednesday, to increase the province’s death toll to 7,202.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 730 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 304 are in intensive care and 186 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 303,493. There are currently 12,814 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 58,500 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate is 3.1 per cent.
Public health officials have said more than 1.3-million doses of the vaccine have been administered since Wednesday night. There are 292,269 people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
