The London-area has recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 cases since the end of May.
Thirty-eight more infections were reported by the Middlesex London Health Unit on Friday. It is the region's largest single-day jump in cases since May 27 when 49 infections were logged. It is also the ninth straight day of double-digit increases.
The city and county's total caseload since the pandemic began now sits at 13,069.
No additional deaths were recorded Friday, leaving the local death toll at 232. It has been nearly a week since anyone has died locally after contracting the virus.
The number of resolved cases rose by 16 to 12,685. The number of known active cases continues to go up with 152 currently in the region.
There are now more than 30 COVID-19 cases linked to separate outbreaks at two downtown London bars. Health unit investigators have confirmed 22 primary infections and four secondary infections associated with the outbreak at Delilah’s at 209 John St. and eight cases are now connected to the outbreak at Lost Love at 153 Carling St.
"Indoor activities where some people aren't vaccinated, where physical distancing isn't kept, and where masking isn't consistent are high risk activities," said Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Alex Summers. "We have seen a notable jump in cases specifically among those aged 18 to 24... for those who are unwell or unvaccinated, I strongly encourage you to consider your actions when attending these events."
All but nine of the more than 30 cases linked to the outbreaks were among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated individuals.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has eight 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 3,686. There have been 3,383 cases involving the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant that originated in the U.K., 123 cases of the P.1 (Gamma) variant from Brazil, two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant from South Africa, and 174 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant, originally found in India.
Over 86 per cent of the 395 new COVID-19 cases reported since July 9 were among people who were not yet fully vaccinated. The unvaccinated and those who have only received one dose accounted for 94 per cent of all hospitalizations locally over the last six weeks.
In a continued effort to make the vaccine more accessible to everyone, the health unit is hosting its first ‘Doses Till Dark on Richmond Row’ clinics. The pop-ups will be held in the parking lot at the corner of Richmond and Angel streets from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A special pop-up walk-in clinic aimed at breaking down barriers for the LGBT2Q+ community is also planned for Saturday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. 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. To see the full list of pop-up vaccination clinics in London and Middlesex County click here.
While the health unit continues to come up with inventive ways to get the vaccine into arms, London's mayor expressed frustration with those who have not yet rolled up their sleeve.
"We are stretching the resources of the health unit to try to accommodate the lazy and I get a little tired of that," said Mayor Ed Holder. "At some point, people are going to have to take personal responsibility. There is going to come a point where people are going to be denied opportunities because they haven't had their double vax."
Holder made the comments on the same day he expressed an interest in making vaccinations mandatory for all city workers, a step the City of Toronto has already taken.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were three 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 4,035 with 3,928 resolved. The death toll was unchanged at 84. Currently, there are 23 active cases in the two counties. As of Thursday, 80.9 per cent of area residents aged 12 and older have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 72.3 per cent have received both doses. As demand for the vaccine slows, the health unit has announced it is scaling back its vaccination site in St. Thomas. The mass vaccination clinic will officially move to the health unit at 1230 Talbot Street on September 13, two days after the final dose is given at the Memorial Arena. Since March, health officials have administered more than 94,000 doses at the arena location.
On Friday, Ontario saw its largest single-day spike in new COVID-19 cases since early June.
Public health officials confirmed 650 new infections over the past 24 hours, up from 531 on Thursday. There were 485 cases logged on Wednesday, 348 recorded on Tuesday, and 526 reported on Monday.
The last time the province recorded daily case counts as high as Friday's was on June 6 when 663 infections were logged.
Toronto had the province’s highest daily number of cases over the past 24 hours with 136, followed by Peel Region with 113, and York Region with 63.
Preliminary data shows of the 650 new cases reported in Ontario on Friday 426 were not vaccinated, 64 had received one dose, and 103 were fully vaccinated.There were 57 infected individuals whose vaccination status was not known.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 558,101.
There were two additional deaths reported to bring the provincial death toll up to 9,450.
Hospitals in Ontario have 197 COVID-19 positive patients admitted to general wards. There are 135 patients in intensive care and 104 are on ventilators. Of those on the general wards, 85 were unvaccinated, 11 were partially vaccinated, and 21 were fully vaccinated. Only five of those in ICU were fully vaccinated.
The number of resolved cases are up to 444 to 544,204. There are currently 4,447 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 28,635 COVID-19 tests were processed, up slightly from 26,213 the previous day. Ontario’s current positivity rate is 2.4 per cent.
To date, the province has administered more than 20.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with more than 9.7 million people having received both shots required to be fully inoculated.
