The COVID-19 death toll in the London region went up by two on Friday as hospitalizations and staff cases also saw increases.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported two men, one in his 60s, the other in his 80s, are the latest people in the city and county to succumb to the virus. Neither were associated with a long-term care or retirement home. There have now been 11 deaths linked to COVID-19 locally so far this month. The local death toll currently stands at 357.
Another 94 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hours in London and Middlesex, down from 116 on Thursday. However, the Middlesex London Health Unit has noted that single-day case counts are likely an underestimate of the true number of people in the region with the virus, due to changes made to testing eligibility.
The total number of confirmed infections in the region since the pandemic began is now 33,537.
The number of resolved cases rose to 32,442. There are 737 known active cases in the region, up 39 over the past 24 hours.
Hospitalizations from the virus went up for a fourth consecutive day on Friday, according to figures released by London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The hospital network currently has 28 COVID-19 inpatients in its care, up one from Thursday. Of those in the care of the LHSC, five or fewer are listed in intensive care.
The LHSC noted eight of the 28 COVID-19 positive people in its care were admitted for treatment of the virus. The 20 remaining people came to the hospital for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
There are currently 208 hospital workers who have tested positive for the virus, an increase of nine from Thursday and 41 from this time last week.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, there were 79 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 11,804 with 11,384 resolved. The COVID-19 death toll locally was unchanged at 154. There are currently 266 known active cases in the two counties.
COVID-19 hospitalizations across the province were up slightly on Friday.
Public health officials confirmed there are currently 667 COVID-19 positive people in hospitals in Ontario. That is up six from the previous day. At this time last week, COVID-19 hospitalizations hit their lowest level for 2022 with 615 people admitted.
Of the 667 in hospital Friday, roughly 46 per cent were admitted because of the virus, while 54 per cent were admitted for other reasons and tested positive for the virus.
In intensive care units, there are 161 patients with COVID-19, down four from Thursday.
Ontario logged 2,761 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. Public health officials have cautioned the daily counts are an underestimate of the spread of the virus in the province due to limited PCR testing eligibility.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now stands at 1,148,336.
There were 22 additional deaths reported over the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll up to 12,388. The province said 15 of the deaths occurred within the past month and seven occurred more than a month ago.
The number of resolved cases are up by 1,818 to 1,118,196.
In the last 24 hour period, 17,654 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 12.6 per cent.
To date, the province has administered 32,014,394 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 90.9 per cent of people 12 and older having received two shots. More than 7.1 million Ontarians have received a booster shot.
