The number of active COVID-19 cases in the London region has dipped below 100, the first time it has done so in three months.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said Tuesday there were 93 known active infections locally. Active cases have not been in the double-digits since March 2 when there were 98 active infections reported. Spread of the virus in the city and county has been in a downward trend over the past few weeks, with single-day cases last week in the low-teens to mid-30s. On Tuesday, just eight new infections were logged in the area, up slightly from the previous day's nearly seven month low of three cases.
The region’s total case count since the start of the pandemic stands at 12,361.
There has not been a COVID-19 related death since Saturday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 221.
Another case has been identified as variants of concern for a total of 3,156. There are 3,068 variants of concern that have been confirmed as the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain and 82 have tested positive as the P.1. (Gamma) variant or a sublineage of it. The region has also had three cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant or a sublineage of it and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) strain. There are 345 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
There were 23 recoveries logged over the last 24 hours to bring the total number of resolved cases to 12,047.
There are no ongoing outbreaks at local seniors’ facilities or daycares.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has 20 patients with COVID-19 in its care, nine of whom are listed in intensive care. COVID-19 patients transferred into the LHSC from regions outside of the London-area include fewer than five acute care patients and fewer than five ICU patients.
As of Saturday, there have been 316,831 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in the region, which works out to 67.5 percent of all area residents aged 18 and older having received at least one dose. As of Thursday, anyone who received their first dose before April 18 will be eligible to rebook their second shot appointment for an earlier date. 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, there were two new cases reported Tuesday. Southwestern Public Health said that brings the total caseload since last spring to 3,816. For the first time in nearly a week, there has been a COVID-19 related death in the region to bring the death toll up to 83. Resolved cases rose to 3,709 with 24 known active cases in the two counties remaining. Roughly 49.9 per cent of area residents have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 2.9 per cent have received both doses. There are no active outbreaks locally.
For the first time in over eight months, Ontario’s daily case count fell below 500.
Public health officials logged 469 new infections across the province on Tuesday. The last time the number of single-day cases was this low was on September 26 when 435 infections were confirmed. This is also the ninth straight day Ontario's daily case count was below 1,000. There were 525 new cases reported on Monday and 663 logged on Sunday.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases over the past 24 hours with 182, followed by Peel with 76, Porcupine Health Unit Region with 40 and Durham with 30.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 537,076.
The province has confirmed 1,010 more cases of the B.1.1.7 variant first discovered in the U.K., known as Alpha, for a total of 133,706. The number of cases of the B.1.351 variant first associated with South Africa, known as Beta, held at 1,079. There are 30 more cases involving the P.1. variant first found in Brazil, known as Gamma, for a total of 4,009. The epidemiologic summary does not list data surrounding the B.1.617 variant, known as Delta, which was originally found in India.
There were 18 additional deaths reported over the past two days. The provincial death toll is now 8,887.
There are currently 621 people with COVID-19 being treated at Ontario hospitals, an increase of 74 since Monday. COVID-19 related admissions to the intensive care unit are down by 19 to 309 and there are 305 patients on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose by 1,010 to 520,811. There are currently 7,378 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 17,579 COVID -19 tests were processed. That is up from 15,177 the previous day and brings the province’s positivity rate to 2.7 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 10,267,613 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with just over 1.1 million people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.
