Public health officials in London-Middlesex are reporting the region's largest one-day jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than a month, and all of the new cases are post-secondary students.
The Middlesex London Health Unit said Thursday 11 additional people have tested positive for the virus. That is the biggest daily increase in the area since August 15 when a dozen new cases were confirmed. Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie told reporters that 10 of the new cases are Western University students and one is a Fanshawe College student.
Thursday's new cases come less than a week after health officials declared a community outbreak after five Western University students, who had spent time at downtown establishments and socializing with neighbours, contracted the virus. The fear of spread within the community has led to extremely long waits at London's two COVID-19 assessment centres. Both the Oakridge and Carling Heights assessment centres were forced to close early for the second straight day on Wednesday after quickly reaching testing capacity. Prior to closing, wait times were roughly three hours.
On Thursday, similar lineups of people have wait-times sitting around the two-hour mark at both facilities.
Health officials continued to ask that anyone who does not have symptoms of the virus or has not been in contact with an infected individual put off visiting the assessment centres.
The London area's total number of cases since the start of the pandemic currently sits at 776.
There were no new recoveries reported over the past 24 hours, leaving the number of resolved cases at 679.
No additional deaths linked to COVID-19 have been recorded in the city or county since June 12.
The number of active cases has increased to 40.
In Elgin and Oxford counties, only one new COVID-19 case was reported on Thursday. Southwestern Public Health, the region's health unit, said the new case brings its total case count up to 263. There were no new resolved cases or deaths related to the virus reported over the past 24 hours. Only 10 cases in the two counties remain active.
Younger Ontarians continue to get the blame for a spike of new cases across the province.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Thursday 70 per cent of Ontario's 293 new infections are in people under the age of 40. New cases in the province have been climbing over the past week, with 315 reported Wednesday, 251 on Tuesday, and 313 on Monday.
Similar to previous days this week, the majority of the new cases were in the Toronto area.
"There are 85 new cases in Toronto with 63 in Peel and 39 in Ottawa," tweeted Elliott.
She added that more than 35,000 COVID-19 tests were completed across the province over the last 24 hour period.
Ontario's total case count is 45,676.
There were three additional deaths, increasing the province's death toll to 2,825.
There was a slight increase in the number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the province with 53 people admitted. Of those, 21 are in the intensive care unit and 12 are relying on ventilators to breathe.
Recoveries are up to 40,424. However, the number of active cases in Ontario rose by 111 from Wednesday to 2,427.
