The number of new COVID-19 cases in the London region was up a bit on Tuesday as vaccination appointment booking for the 18-plus crowd opened.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 43 new infections over the past 24 hours. That is up from 26 on Monday, the lowest single-day case count so far this month. The latest daily figures bring the area’s total case load since the pandemic began to 11,667.
For the second time in two days, there was another COVID-19 related death locally. A man in his 70s who was connected with a long-term care home succumbed to the virus. His is the 14th COVID-19 death in the region so far this month. The area death toll stands at 214.
Another 25 cases have been identified as variants of concern for a total of 2,600. There are 2,572 variants of concern that have been confirmed as the B.1.1.7 strain, which originated in the U.K. and 27 have tested positive as the P.1. variant from Brazil. The region has just a single case of the B.1.617 variant which originated in India. There are 327 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
There were 81 recoveries logged over the past 24 hours to bring the total number of resolved cases to 10,820. Currently, there are 633 active cases in the city and county.
There are ongoing outbreaks at four local long-term care homes – Dearness Home, Kensington Village, Kensington Village Retirement, and McGarrell Place.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 49 patients with COVID-19 in its care, 23 of whom are listed in intensive care. COVID-19 patients transferred into the LHSC from harder hit regions of the province include nine acute care patients and 18 ICU patients.
As of Saturday, there have been 225,855 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region. Vaccine eligibility opened up on Tuesday for all adults 18 and older. The region had 24,000 appointments available over the next four weeks as of 8 a.m. Roughly 3,500 more appointments become available each day. Vaccine appointments can be booked online at www.covidvaccinelm.ca or by phone at 226-289-3560 between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, the number of new infections reported on Tuesday dropped to a single digit. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said there were seven new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from the weekend total of 36. That brings the total caseload since last spring to 3,675. There was one additional COVID-19 related death in the region, increasing the death toll to 79. Resolved cases rose to 3,491 with 105 known active cases in the two counties remaining. Roughly 36.9 per cent of area residents have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 2.2 per cent have received both doses. There are active outbreaks at Caressant Care Nursing home in Woodstock and Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital. One death is associated with each of the two outbreaks.
Ontario’s daily case count fell to its lowest level in nearly two months.
Public health officials logged 1,616 new infections across the province on Tuesday. That’s down from 2,170 on Monday and 2,199 on Sunday. Single-day case numbers in Ontario have not been this low since March 24 when 1,571 infections were recorded.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases on Tuesday with 472, followed by Peel with 360, York Region with 116, Hamilton with 114, and Durham with 102.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 513,102.
The province has confirmed 2,155 more cases of the variant first discovered in the U.K., known as B.1.1.7, for a total of 110,956. The number of cases of the variant first associated with South Africa, known as B.1.351. is up by two to 681. There are ten more cases involving the variant first found in Brazil, known as P.1. for a total of 2,031. The epidemiologic summary currently does not list data surrounding the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
There were 17 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours. The provincial death toll is now 8,506.
There are currently 1,484 people with COVID-19 being treated at Ontario hospitals, an increase of 164 since Monday. COVID-19 related admissions to the intensive care unit are down by 15 to 764 and there are 559 patients on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose to 479,630. There are currently 24,966 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 22,915 COVID -19 tests were processed. That is down from 24,498 the previous day and brings the province’s positivity rate to 7.6 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 7,286,177 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 432,760 people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.
