The daily case count in the London region is not only back down to single-digits, but has reached a low not seen since last fall.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said there were just three new infections on Monday, down from 16 on Sunday and 14 on Saturday. There have not been this few new COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County since three infections were logged on November 16. The area's last single-digit day was March 9 when there were eight new cases recorded.
The region’s total case count stands at 12,353 since the pandemic began.
The death toll is unchanged at 221 with no additional COVID-19 related deaths reported locally since Saturday.
There were 14 more cases involving variants of concern identified in the region since Friday, for a total of 3,155. The Alpha B.1.1.7 variant, which originated in the U.K., now accounts for 3,068 of the cases. There are 81 cases of the Gamma P.1. variant from Brazil, two cases identified as the Beta B.1.351 variant from South Africa, and three cases of the B.1.617 variant and sublineages of that strain that originated in India. There are 345 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 22 patients with COVID-19 in its care, down from 30 at the start of the weekend. Of those in hospital, nine are in the intensive care unit. Fewer than five patients transferred in from other hard hit regions are in acute care and ICU.
There are no current outbreaks at local seniors’ facilities, schools, or daycare centres.
Resolved cases in the city and county are up by 27 to 12,024. Currently, there are 108 active cases in the region.
Accelerated second dose bookings for the COVID-19 vaccine for those 80 and older in the region opened on Monday morning. This is a week later than for those in the same age group who live in other areas of the province. Seniors who wish to push up their second dose appointment can do so online at www.covidvaccinelm.ca or by calling 226-289-3560 daily between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties was eight on Monday. The number includes infections identified both Saturday and Sunday, as Southwestern Public Health does not update its COVID-19 dashboard on weekends. The latest cases bring the two counties total case count to 3,814. There were no additional deaths recorded over the past two days, leaving the death toll unchanged at 82. There are currently no active institutional outbreaks locally. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 3,702, leaving 30 known active cases in the two counties.
Provincially, the number of new COVID-19 cases dropped to its lowest level in more than eight months.
Public health officials reported 525 infections on Monday. Daily case counts have not been this low since September 27 when 491 infections were recorded. There were 663 new cases logged on Sunday and 744 on Saturday.
The continued downward case trend comes on the same day the provincial government announced it would begin step one of its three-step roadmap to reopen Ontario's economy on Friday. That is three days earlier than the June 14 target the province originally set. Step one will see outdoor patios and non-essential businesses reopen and outdoor gathering limits increased to ten people.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 114, Peel with 95, Waterloo with 51, Durham with 40 and York Region with 34.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 705 cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, or Alpha as it is now known, since the previous day for a total of 132,696. There were 239 more cases of the P.1 variant, Gamma, for a total of 3,979, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant, Beta, is up by 21 for a total of 1,097. The daily epidemiologic summary does not list cases in the province of the B.1.617 variant, originally found in India.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 536,607.
Fifteen deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, to increase the province’s death toll to 8,869.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 547 patients with COVID-19, an increase of two since Sunday. The number of infected patients in the intensive care unit is down by 13 to 497 and there are five fewer patients on ventilators for a total of 339.
The number of resolved cases rose by 941 to 519,801. There are currently 7,937 known active cases of the virus in Ontario, down from 12,567 a week ago.
In the last 24 hour period, 15,177 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate has risen to 3.6 per cent, from Sunday's 2.8 per cent.
The province has administered 10,109,404 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Sunday night. Health Minister Christine Elliot stated this milestone of more than 10 million doses provides a "strong level of protection" against the virus.
A total of 1,031,520 people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
