For only the second time this month, daily COVID-19 case numbers have climbed above 30 in the London region.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 31 new infections on Wednesday. That is up from 22 on Tuesday and 20 on Monday. The only other day in March on which cases have been this high was last Friday when 31 cases were also recorded.
The number of confirmed variants and screened variant positive cases held at four and 54.
Since the start of the pandemic, London and Middlesex County have had a total of 6,668 confirmed cases.
The area's death toll is unchanged at 185. There have only been two COVID-19 related deaths this month - one on March 3, the other on March 8. That's a sharp decrease from January, the region's deadliest month of the virus, when 73 people died. The vaccination of residents and staff at long-term care and retirement homes has been credited for the drop off of fatalities.
Outbreaks remain at three local seniors' facilities, one public school in Lucan, and in Western University's Essex Hall residence. There are currently 10 active cases within nine area schools. Five of those cases were reported Tuesday at Glen Cairn public in London, Parkview in Komoka, Harrisfield in Ingersoll, Huron Park secondary in Woodstock and Strathroy District Collegiate Institute.
The outbreak at the London Health Sciences Centre has not grown with six patients and fewer than five staffers infected. There are no deaths related to this outbreak. The hospital networks has a total of 15 patients with COVID-19 in its care, six of whom are listed in intensive care. Seven employees have also tested positive.
There were 15 more recoveries reported by the health unit on Wednesday, bringing the total number of resolved cases to 6,278. Currently, there are 205 known active cases in the region.
Southwestern Public Health recorded seven new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths on Wednesday. That is down from 17 new infections the previous day. The latest cases puts Elgin and Oxford counties’ total up to 2,723 and leaves the death toll at 67. There has not been a COVID-19 related death in the two counties in more than a month. Resolved cases rose to 2,578, leaving 78 active cases in the region. There is one seniors' facility with an active case - Arches Transitional Bed Program.
Daily case numbers in Ontario have risen slightly following a one day drop.
According public health officials, 1,571 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is up a little from 1,546 on Tuesday. This is the second straight day daily cases have been below 1,600.
Regions with the highest case counts were Toronto with 459, followed by Peel and York Region with 309 and 143 cases.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found 909 more lab confirmed cases involving variants of concern. There are now a total of 1,389 cases of the U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7., 50 cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, and 47 cases of the the Brazil variant, P.1.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 333,690.
Ten deaths were reported over the past 24 hours to bring the province's death toll to 7,263.
Ontario’s hospitals are currently dealing with 893 patients with COVID-19. Of those, 333 are in intensive care and 210 are on ventilators.
Resolved cases across the province are up to 311,380. That leaves 15,047 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 51,000 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 32,556 the previous day. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped to 3.7 per cent from 5.7 per cent.
The province has administered 1,676,150 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. A total of 302,664 people in Ontario have received their second dose of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.
