Public health officials in London and Middlesex County are reporting the region’s highest single-day COVID-19 case count since mid-June.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed 23 new infections on Wednesday. That is up from 15 on Tuesday, 17 on Monday, and 21 on Sunday. It is also the seventh straight day the region has recorded a double-digit case increase. The last time the city and county logged this many cases of the virus in one day was on June 16 when there were 26 new infections.
Wednesday's figures pushed the locally total number of cases since the pandemic began above 13,000 to 13,012.
Resolved cases are up by 21 for a total of 12,656. Active cases in the area currently sit at 124 - the highest level in two months.
There were no additional COVID-19 related deaths locally on Wednesday, leaving the death toll unchanged at 232.
Another outbreak has been declared at a downtown bar. The health unit declared the outbreak on Wednesday after five people tested positive for COVID-19 after going to Lost Love Social House at 153 Carling Street on August 7. An outbreak that saw 17 people infected was declared on Sunday at Delilah's restaurant and bar on John Street. Grand Wood Park Retirement Residence in London is also dealing with an ongoing outbreak of the virus.
Hospitalizations in the area are down slightly with seven COVID-19 patients in the care of the London Health Sciences Centre. Of those, five or fewer are listed in intensive care. There are also fewer than five hospital employees who have tested positive for the virus.
There was one more case involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County, for a total of 3,682. Of those, 3,381 have been identified as the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) strain from the U.K., 122 are the P.1. (Gamma) variant from Brazil, 172 are the B.1.617 (Delta) strain from India, and there are two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta) variant from South Africa. The health unit also noted a total of 190 cases have tested positive for a mutation.
Of the 384 new cases logged over the past six weeks, 86.7 per cent are among people who are not fully vaccinated.
Under the direction of the provincial government, the health unit resumed vaccinating 11-year-old children who will turn 12 by the end of the year against COVID-19. Public health officials announced last Thursday they were expanding eligibility to those born in 2009 or earlier, but that was quickly stopped less than 24 hours at the request of Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore. The immunization effort was allowed to resume on Wednesday morning after Ontario reviewed data from other provinces administering shots to kids born in 2009 showed no adverse reactions.
Southwestern Public Health reported two more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, increasing the local case count since the pandemic began to 4,030. The death toll was unchanged at 84 with no additional deaths recorded since July 14. Resolved cases rose to 3,922. There are now 24 active cases in the two counties.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario climbed back up to nearly 500 following a one-day drop.
A total of 485 new infections were confirmed on Wednesday. That is up from Tuesday’s 348 new cases, but is down from Monday's 526 cases and Sunday's 511 cases.
Of the latest 485 new cases, 309 were among unvaccinated people, 41 involved partially vaccinated people, 98 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 37 had unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the highest number of new infections over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 108, Windsor-Essex with 75, and Peel Region with 36.
Ontario’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 556,920.
According to public health officials, there were three additional deaths related to the virus on Wednesday. The official death toll now stands at 9,431.
The daily epidemiologic summary indicates Ontario found 11 more lab confirmed cases over the past 24 hours of the B.1.1.7. (Alpha) variant. There are now a total of 145,705 cases of that strain. Another 23 cases of the P.1. (Gamma) variant have been confirmed for a total of 5,206 and the total number of cases of the B.1.351(Beta) variant in Ontario went up by three to 1,496. Another 117 cases of the B.1.617 (Delta) variant were also identified for a total of 6,656.
Hospitalizations in the province have increased to 174 COVID-19 positive patients. That’s up by 11 patients from the previous day. No data on the number of people in the intensive care unit or on ventilators was released on Wednesday due to a technical error, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott.
Resolved cases across the province are up 345 to 543,422. That leaves 4,067 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 26,307 COVID-19 tests were processed, up from 17,408 on Tuesday. Ontario’s positivity rate has dropped from 2.6 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The province has administered just over 20.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night. There are more than 9.6 million people in Ontario who have received both doses of the vaccine and are considered fully inoculated.
