Public health officials in London and Middlesex County reported six new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
The half a dozen new infections bring the total number of cases in the region since the start of the pandemic to 880. Thirty-five of those cases have been confirmed since Sunday.
Recoveries in the city and county rose by 11 over the past 24 hours to 743. The death toll stands at 57 with no additional death since mid-June.
Currently, there are 80 active cases locally.
Outbreaks continue to be reported at long-term care and retirement facilities Ashwood Manor Retirement Home, Country Terrace, Meadow Park Care Centre, and Peoplecare Oak Crossing.
Demand for COVID-19 testing continues to overwhelm London's two assessment centres which have reached capacity daily for the last three weeks. On Thursday, it was reported people began lining up for tests as early as 4:30 a.m. In an effort to try to meet the demand, the Oakridge assessment centre will switch to appointment-only testing on Monday. That will leave the Carling Heights assessment centre as the city's only walk-in testing site. Hours are being extended by two hours at that location to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, reported two new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours. The region’s total number of cases since the start of the pandemic now stands at 270. There was one additional recovery recorded on Thursday, increasing the number of resolved cases to 258. The death toll is unchanged at five.
Active cases in the two counties sit at seven.
There has been a slight dip in the number of new COVID cases reported in Ontario.
Public health officials said Thursday 538 more people tested positive for the virus. That is down from 625 new cases on Wednesday.
"There are 229 new cases in Toronto with 101 in Peel, 66 in Ottawa and 43 in York Region," Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted. "Sixty per cent of today’s cases are in people under the age of 40."
Ontario’s total case count since January has grown to 52,248.
Three additional COVID-19 linked deaths were reported over the last 24 hours, leaving the death toll at 2,851. Resolved cases rose to 44,422, with 515 recoveries confirmed since Wednesday.
The number of infected Ontarians in hospital has gone up to 162. Of those, 36 are in the intensive care unit and 17 are relying on ventilators to breathe.
In the last 24 hours, nearly 40,000 additional COVID-19 tests were conducted in Ontario.
