Fifteen days and counting.
The London-area's daily tally of new COVID-19 infections remained in the double-digits on Thursday.
The Middlesex London Health Unit logged 29 new cases, up from 23 the previous day. The region recorded a one-day case drop on Tuesday when 13 infections were logged. That followed single-day case counts nearing 50 on Monday, Sunday and Saturday.
The total number of cases locally since the pandemic began is now 13,250, according to the health unit.
The death toll is unchanged at 233, with no additional COVID-19 related deaths reported in London or Middlesex County since Tuesday.
Hospitalizations in the area are up by one with 11 COVID-19 patients admitted to the London Health Sciences Centre. There are currently five or fewer COVID-19 patients listed in intensive care and fewer than five staffers have tested positive for the virus.
There is an ongoing outbreak at the Total Package Hockey Day Camp in London. All other day camps and child care settings in the region are outbreak free.
The number of resolved cases is up by 30 to 12,782. Currently, there are 235 active cases in the region, up three over the previous day.
The number of cases involving variants of concern in London and Middlesex County has gone up by 17 to 3,794. All 17 were identified as the Delta variant for a total of 279 locally. The number of cases of the Delta variant, Gamma variant, and Beta variant were unchanged leaving those totals at 3,385, 124, and two.
Of the 545 new COVID-19 cases to be reported in the region over the past six weeks, 86.4 per cent were among people who were not yet fully vaccinated against the virus. As of August 21, 82.5 per cent of all local residents 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine and 74.6 per cent have been given both shots.
Three new COVID-19 cases were logged Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties, matching the number of infections recorded on Wednesday. Southwestern Public Health’s total caseload has now increased to 4,060. The death toll remained at 84, with no additional COVID-19 deaths reported. The total number of resolved cases stands at 3,953 and there are 23 known active cases locally.
Provincially, the daily number of COVID-19 cases remained above 600 for a second consecutive day.
Public health officials said there were 678 new cases on Thursday. That is up from the 660 infections logged on Wednesday, 486 cases recorded on Tuesday, and 639 cases on Monday.
Of the 678 new cases identified on Thursday, 395 were among unvaccinated individuals and 82 were people who were partially vaccinated, 141 were fully vaccinated individuals, and 60 had an unknown vaccination status.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 144, Peel Region with 102, York Region with 97, and Windsor-Essex with 78.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 561,975.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 107 new cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant over the past 24 hours for a total of 146,025. Cases of the P.1 (Gamma) variant and B.1.351 (Beta) variant were unchanged at 5,221 and 1,500. There were 216 new cases involving the B.1.617 (Delta) variant for a total of 8,246.
No additional deaths related to the virus were reported on Thursday. The province’s death toll remains at 9,472.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 302 people with COVID-19 on general wards, an increase of 19 from the previous day. The number of people in the intensive care unit went up by four to 165 and there are 134 people on ventilators - an increase of four from Wednesday.
Of those on general hospital wards with COVID-19, 155 are not fully vaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown and ten have received both doses.
The number of resolved cases rose by 513 to 547,198. There are currently 5,305 known active cases of the virus in Ontario.
In the last 24 hour period, 27,815 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 2.8 per cent.
The province has administered more than 20.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. There are more than 9.8 million people in Ontario who have now received the second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.
