While COVID-19 hospitalizations in the London area saw a second day of declines, the local death toll increased by one.
The Middlesex London Health Unit confirmed on Thursday a woman in her 70s succumbed to the virus. The woman was associated with a long-term care home. There have now been two COVID-19 related deaths in the region this week. The latest death brings the local death toll to 378.
The health unit also recorded 67 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, down from 82 on Wednesday. Daily case tallies are believed to be an underestimate of community spread since the provincial government limited eligibility for PCR testing at the end of December. The total number of cases locally since March of 2020 is now 37,194, according to the health unit.
The number of resolved cases is up to 36,101. Currently, there are 715 known active cases in the region, down from 893 a week ago.
COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped by seven over the last 24 hours. The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed on Thursday it has 39 inpatients with the virus. It is the first time since April 7 that number has been below 40.
Of the 39 people in hospital, there are 20 being treated for COVID-19 and 19 being treated for other ailments but who have also tested positive.
Intensive care unit admissions related to the virus were unchanged at five or fewer. The number of COVID-19 patients in the care of Children’s Hospital continues to be five or fewer with five or fewer of those inpatients in paediatric critical care.
The hospital network said it currently has 169 infected staffers, up two compared to Wednesday. A week ago there were 235 employees who had tested positive.
Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for Elgin and Oxford counties, does not update its COVID-19 cases dashboard on Thursdays. Its next update will be released on Friday.
Provincially, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations dipped for the second straight day as ICU admissions rose.
A total of 1,676 people with COVID-19 were admitted to Ontario hospitals on Thursday, down 22 over the previous day. At this time last week there were 1,661 hospitalizations.
The provincial breakdown of hospitalization numbers reported on Thursday shows 43 per cent of those admitted were because of COVID-19 and 57 per cent are being treated for other reasons but also have tested positive for COVID-19.
There are 205 people with COVID-19 in intensive care units across the province, an increase of six since Wednesday, according to the latest figures released by the province.
Public health officials said there were 2,700 new cases in Ontario on Thursday. Public health officials have cautioned that daily case numbers are considered an underestimate of the spread of the virus though, as the provincial government continues to restrict who is eligible for a free PCR test.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 1,268,390.
Thirty-two additional deaths related to the virus were reported on Thursday, to bring the death toll up to 12,921. The province said all of the latest deaths occurred within the last month.
The number of resolved cases rose by 3,642 to 1,229,396.
In the last 24 hour period, 17,927 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s positivity rate is now 13 per cent, down from 15.2 per cent a week ago.
The province has administered 32,864,797 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Wednesday night. Ninety-three per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of the vaccine, while 91.2 per cent have been given a second dose. More than 7.3 million first booster shots have been administered.
