The London region’s daily tally of new COVID-19 cases remained at a high on Thursday not seen in two months.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 23 new infections on Thursday, the same number of new cases as the previous day. Prior to Wednesday and Thursday, the area had not reported more than 21 new cases in a single-day since June 16. This is the region's eighth consecutive day of double-digit single-day case increases.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began is now 13,034, according to the health unit.
The death toll is unchanged at 232, with no additional COVID-19 related deaths reported in London or Middlesex County since Saturday.
Hospitalizations in the area are up by one with eight COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are currently five or fewer COVID-19 patients listed in intensive care and fewer than five staffers have tested positive for the virus.
An outbreak remains at Grand Wood Park Retirement in London, as well as at two downtown bars - Lost Love Social House at 153 Carling St. and Delilah’s at 209 John St.
The number of resolved cases is up by 13 to 12,669. Currently, there are 133 active cases in the region, up nine over the previous day.
The number of cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County has gone up by five to 3,686. The number of cases involving the Alpha variant went up by two to 3,383. There were two more cases of the Delta variant for a total of 174, and there was one additional case of the Gamma variant, increasing the total to 123.
Of the 395 new COVID-19 cases to be reported in the region over the past six weeks, 86.5 per cent were among people who were not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. As of August 14, 82 per cent of all local residents 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine and 72.6 per cent have been given both shots.
The health unit has announced it will be holding a special pop-up walk-in clinic aimed at breaking down barriers for the LGBT2Q+ community this weekend. The clinic will be held from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday at Palasad Social Bowl at 777 Adelaide Street. In addition to offering both first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, the one-day pop-up will include music, food, and entertainment. All public health guidelines will be adhered to during the clinic, the health unit has reassured.
Two new COVID-19 cases were logged Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties, matching the number of infections recorded on Wednesday. Southwestern Public Health’s total caseload has now increased to 4,032. The death toll remained at 84, with no additional COVID-19 deaths reported. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,925 and there are 23 known active cases locally.
Provincially, the daily number of COVID-19 cases shot above 500 for the first time in two days.
Public health officials said there were 531 new cases on Thursday. That is up from the 485 infections logged on Wednesday and 348 cases recorded on Tuesday. There were 526 cases Monday and 511 on Sunday.
Of the 531 new cases identified on Thursday, 382 were among unvaccinated individuals and 46 were people who were partially vaccinated, 75 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 28 had an unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 116, Peel Region with 63, York Region with 62, and Hamilton with 46.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 557,451.
Due to system upgrades, no new data involving variants of concern including Alpha, Gamma, Beta, and Delta, was available, the Ministry of Health said.
Seventeen additional deaths related to the virus were reported on Thursday. However 15 of those deaths actually occurred two months ago. They were not reported at the time and were included in the latest numbers as part of a 'data cleanup' being conducted by the ministry. The province’s death toll is now 9,448.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 176 people with COVID-19, an increase of two from the previous day. For the second straight day, no data on the number of people in the intensive care unit or on ventilators was released because of a technical issue. Of those on general hospital wards with COVID-19, 163 are not fully vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown.
The number of resolved cases rose by 338 to 543,760. There are currently 4,243 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 26,213 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped slightly to 2.4 per cent.
The province has administered more than 20.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There are more than 9.6 million people in Ontario who have now received the second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
