The number of new COVID-19 cases reported in London and Middlesex County slid back into single-digits on Thursday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported just five new infections over the past 24 hours, down from ten on Wednesday. Prior to that mid-week increase, single-day case reports had been in the single digits for five straight days. They went as low as three on both Monday and Tuesday.
The region’s total number of cases since the pandemic began is now 12,525, according to the health unit.
The local death toll was unchanged at 224 with no additional deaths recorded over the past two days.
Hospitalizations in the area held steady on Thursday with ten COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are fewer than five COVID-19 patients listed in intensive care. The number of COVID-19 patients transferred to the LHSC from outside of the region remains low with fewer than five in acute care and intensive care. The outbreak on University Hospital’s 8TU transplant unit is the region's only ongoing outbreak.
The number of cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County has gone up to 3,442. The majority of variants identified in the area are the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain from the U.K. However, the health unit announced on Wednesday four more cases of the Delta variant or sublineage of it have been identified locally for a total of eight. Delta is more transmissible than other variants and is expected to become the dominant strain in Ontario.
Recoveries reported over the past 24 hours have brought total resolved cases up to 12,246. Currently, there are 55 active cases in the region.
The number of new cases in Elgin and Oxford counties went from four to two on Thursday. Southwestern Public Health said the latest cases bring the two counties’ total caseload to 3,869. There were no COVID-19 related deaths in the region leaving the death toll at 83. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,757 and there are 29 known active cases locally.
Provincially, new infections remained below 300 as Ontarians learned they would enter Stage 2 of the economic reopening plan sooner than originally expected.
Public health officials said there were 296 new cases on Thursday. That is a slight increase from the 255 logged on Wednesday and the fourth straight day new cases have been under 300. The seven-day average daily case count is now 305, down from 443 at this time last week.
Regions with the most new cases were Waterloo with 96, Toronto with 35, and Peel with 20.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 543,315.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 278 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 142,925. Seven more cases of the P.1 (Gamma) variant were found for a total of 4,270, while the number of new cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant went up by two for a total of 1,156. There were 81 new cases involving the B.1.617 (Delta) variant for a total of 1,056.
Six deaths were reported on Thursday, to increase the province’s death toll to 9,099.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 11 fewer people admitted with COVID-19. Of those in hospital, 300 are in intensive care and 189 are on ventilators.
The number of resolved cases rose by 384 to 531,278. There are currently 2,938 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 29,500 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 1.1 per cent. That is the lowest it has been since September 25.
The province has administered 13,321,816 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There have been more than 3.5 million people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
The downward trend in cases and steadily increasing vaccination rate has led the provincial government to announce a June 30 move to Step 2 of its economic reopening plan. That is two days earlier than the July 2 reopening date originally provided by the Ontario government. Loosened restrictions under Step 2 allow for personal care services like hair and nail salons to reopen, capacity at essential retailers to increase to 50 percent, and up to 25 people to gather outdoors.
