The London-area recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 cases this month on Friday.
Seventeen more infections were reported over the past 24 hours by the Middlesex London Health Unit. It is the third time this week daily case counts have surpassed ten and the sixth double-digit single-day increase this month.
The region’s total caseload since the pandemic began is now 12,916.
No additional deaths were recorded Friday, leaving the local death toll at 231. It has been two weeks since anyone in the city or county has died after contracting the virus.
The number of resolved cases rose by 12 to 12,602. The number of known active cases continues to go up with 83 currently in the region.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has six COVID-19 inpatients in its care, unchanged from Thursday. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care. Currently, there are fewer than five hospital staff who have tested positive for the virus.
The number of cases involving variants of concern identified in the area was unchanged at 3,663. There have been 3,381 cases involving the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant that originated in the U.K., 120 cases of the P.1 (Gamma) variant from Brazil, two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant from South Africa, and 156 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant, originally found in India.
Over 91 per cent of the 306 new COVID-19 cases reported since July 2 were among people who were not yet fully vaccinated. The unvaccinated and those whose immunity from the shot had not yet taken effect accounted for 91.6 per cent of all hospitalizations locally over the last six weeks.
The health unit has reversed course on expanded eligibility of the COVID-19 vaccine for 11-year-old children who will turn 12 by the end of the year. On Thursday afternoon, public health officials announced those born in 2009 or earlier were now allowed to get the shot. That was rescinded late Friday morning, with the health unit tweeting it will not be "extending COVID-19 vaccination to those who are not yet 12 years old." Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie said on social media the health unit rolled back the initiative at the request of the provincial government as it had not received Health Canada approval.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were six new COVID-19 cases reported Friday. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the region, said that brings the local total number of cases to 4,013 with 3,902 resolved. The death toll was unchanged at 84. Currently, there are 27 active cases in the two counties. As of Thursday, 80.2 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 69.8 per cent have received both doses.
For the second straight day, the number of new COVID-19 cases across the province was above 500.
Public health officials confirmed 510 new infections on Friday, down slightly from 513 on Thursday. There were 324 cases logged on Wednesday, 321 recorded on Tuesday, and 325 reported on Monday. At this time last week, the province recorded 340 new cases, up from 226 the Friday before.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases over the past 24 hours with 129, followed by Peel Region with 61, and Hamilton with 51.
Preliminary data shows of the 510 new cases reported in Ontario on Friday 368 were not vaccinated, 57 had received one dose, and 85 were fully vaccinated.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 554,472.
There have been another 15 new cases of the variant originating from the U.K. in Ontario. That brings the province’s total number of B.1.1.7. (Alpha) cases to 145,656. Cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant are unchanged, leaving the total at 1,493 and P.1 (Gamma) variants were also unchanged for a total of 5,176. The number of new cases involving the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant is up by 146 for a total of 6,019.
There were four additional deaths reported to bring the provincial death toll up to 9,416. Two of those deaths occurred more than two months ago and were included in Friday's numbers as part of a data cleanup, the Ministry of Health noted.
Hospitals in Ontario have 123 COVID-19 positive patients admitted to general wards. There are 111 patients in intensive care and 72 are on ventilators. Of those on the general wards, 64 were unvaccinated, six were partially vaccinated, and nine were fully vaccinated. Only three of those in ICU were fully vaccinated.
The number of resolved cases are up to 246 to 541,946. There are currently 3,110 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, roughly 23,500 COVID-19 tests were processed, up slightly from just under 22,900 the previous day. Ontario’s current positivity rate is 2 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 20,096,593 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with nearly 9.4 million people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.
