Nine new cases of the novel coronavirus were reported in London and Middlesex on Sunday, along with nine recoveries.
Zero new deaths were reported.
This increases the region’s total COVID-19 case count to 1,094 with 972 recoveries and 60 deaths.
At least 62 cases remain active.
According to data from the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), all of Sunday’s new cases are from London.
In terms of age, four are 19 or under, two are in their 20s, one is in their 40s, and two are in their 60s. Seven are male and two are female. Two are also health-care workers.
The London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) said Sunday that positive cases of COVID-19 have been identified by the MLHU at three local schools.
The school board says Saint Andre Bessette Catholic Secondary School, St. Kateri Catholic Elementary School and Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School each have a case of COVID-19.
All three schools will remain open and school buses will continue to operate, the LDCSB said.
At least 14 school cases have been reported in London-Middlesex.
Meanwhile, an outbreak at Western University’s London Hall residence, declared Oct. 11, remained active as of Sunday.
The outbreak has been tied to five student infections, according to the health unit. At least 75 students at the school have tested positive for the virus since the start of September.
Nine active institutional outbreaks remain in the region, according to the health unit. They are located at:
- Strathmere Lodge (Bear Creek, Arbor Glen, and Parkview Place)
- Oakcrossing Retirement Living (first, third and fourth floors)
- Westmount Gardens (Lily)
- Chartwell London (entire long-term care facility)
- Chelsey Park Long-Term Care (fourth floor)
- Henley Place LTC Residence (Harris)
- Craigwiel Gardens (long-term care home only, not apartments)
- McGarrell Place (Ivey Lane, Harris House, Windermere Way)
- Extendicare (facility)
It’s not clear how many cases have been tied to all of the institutional outbreaks. At least 44 have been declared since the pandemic began in March, with 37 occurring at seniors’ facilities. At least 15 of them have been declared just since mid-September.
As of Thursday, the phone-based appointment system at Oakridge Arena will stop taking calls once the following day’s appointment slots have been filled up.
The city’s other assessment centre, located at Carling Heights, is continuing on with a time-card system until an appointment booking option is set up.
Both facilities are only testing those who fall within the province’s testing guidelines, and have seen dips in client visits over the last two weeks — a combined average of 269 visits per day.
Elsewhere, three Shoppers Drug Mart locations in the city are continuing to test certain asymptomatic people, while the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service’s mobile testing bus is back up and running.
The bus will be rolling into Kerwood and Parkhill on Tuesday and Thursday of next week, respectively.
The region’s incident rate stands at 215.6 per 100,000 people, while Ontario’s is 466.4.
A total of 128 people have been hospitalized during the pandemic, including 33 in intensive care. Current hospitalization figures aren’t available. London Health Sciences Centre says it will only issue a tally on Mondays if the number of inpatients with COVID-19 is above five.
People in their 20s remain the largest group of cases by age during the pandemic. They account for 24 per cent of all cases with 268, followed by people in their 30s and 50s with 145 and 144 cases each, respectively.
At least 199 cases involve health-care workers, the health unit says. It’s not clear how many staff cases have been reported involving London Health Sciences Centre, but at least four staff cases have been reported at St. Joseph’s Health Care London since the start of September, the organization says.
Previously, St. Joseph’s had reported a total of 19 staff cases, meaning there have been at least 24 staff cases there since the pandemic began.
At least 1,006 cases have been reported in London, while 31 have been in Strathroy-Caradoc.
Elsewhere, Thames Centre’s case count stands at 21, while Middlesex Centre’s is 20, North Middlesex is at eight, Lucan Biddulph seven and Southwest Middlesex one.
Ontario
Ontario reported 1,042 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 70,373.
It’s the first time the province has reported more than 1,000 new cases in a single day.
Seven new deaths were also reported, bringing the provincial death toll to 3,093.
Meanwhile, 60,160 cases are considered resolved, which is 85.5 per cent of all confirmed cases.
The province completed 38,769 additional tests.
There are at least 278 people hospitalized with COVID-19 (down by 16), with 79 in intensive care (down by three) and 54 on ventilators (up by one).
Elgin and Oxford
Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported three new COVID-19 cases and two more recoveries on Sunday.
The region’s total case count stands at 308, of which 284 have recovered. Five people have died, most recently in early July.
According to SWPH, the three new cases are all from Woodstock where there are now eight active cases.
At least 19 known active cases remain in the region. Other than eight in Woodstock, six are in Aylmer, and one each in Ingersoll, St. Thomas, Blandford-Blenheim and Tillsonburg.
Of those, six are in their 50s, five are in their 30s, three each for people 19 or younger and in their 20s, and one each for people in their 40s and 60s.
One of the individuals is in hospital in intensive care, the health unit says. They’re among 24 people who have needed hospitalization during the pandemic, and one of 12 who has been in an ICU.
Two institutional outbreaks remain active in the region. One was reported Saturday, at Secord Trails in Ingersoll, involving one staff member. This is the second time an outbreak has been declared at this institution. The previous outbreak, which was declared over on May 18, involved eight staff members.
The other active institutional outbreak was declared Oct. 17 at Chartwell Aylmer after one staff member tested positive.
Seven outbreaks have been declared during the pandemic that have been linked to 14 cases. Only one has involved a resident, and none of the outbreaks are tied to any deaths.
Aylmer has recorded 88 cases of the virus, while St. Thomas has seen 49, Woodstock 40, Bayham 38, and Tillsonburg 29. Ten cases each have also been reported in Dutton/Dunwich, Ingersoll, and Norwich.
The region’s test positivity rate was 0.5 per cent as of the week of Oct. 11, the most recent figures available. That week saw 2,600 people tested for the virus.
Huron and Perth
Huron Perth does not update its case count over the weekend.
The region’s total case tally was at 142 on Friday, of which 136 have recovered. The death toll of five has remained unchanged since late April.
No outbreaks are currently active. The most recent outbreak, which was declared active on Oct. 16 and declared over Oct. 19, involved one staff member.
Nine institutional outbreaks have been reported in the region during the pandemic, linked to 24 cases and four deaths.
There has also been no change to the number of school-linked cases in Huron-Perth. At least one has been reported. A probable case was reported last week involving a member of Stratford’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School.
According to the health unit, 50 cases have been reported in Perth County since March, including 19 in North Perth and 16 in Perth East.
At least 48 cases have been reported in Huron County, with 14 in Central Huron, 13 in Bluewater, and 10 in South Huron.
Elsewhere, Stratford has seen 38 cases and four deaths connected to one outbreak early in the pandemic, while St. Marys has reported six cases and one death. The death was the first to be reported in the entire region.
At least 32 cases in the region have involved people in their 20s, while 26 have been people in their 50s and 23 in their 60s.
Some 42,983 tests had been conducted by the health unit as of Oct. 10, the most recent figures available. The week of Oct. 4 to 10 saw 2,614 people get tested.
Sarnia and Lambton
Officials with Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported one new COVID-19 case along with four recoveries late Saturday.
The region’s overall case tally stands at 368, of which 337 have recovered and 25 have died. The death toll has not risen since early June.
There are six known active cases in the region.
There has been no change to the county’s active outbreak tally, which stands at two.
Both outbreaks were declared on Oct. 15, one at an unspecified workplace where three people tested positive, and another at Twin Lakes Terrace, a long-term care home in Sarnia, where two staff members tested positive.
Twelve outbreaks have been declared during the pandemic, including nine at seniors’ facilities, two at workplaces and one at Bluewater Health hospital.
They’re linked to 114 cases and 16 deaths. A vast majority of cases, and all 16 deaths, occurred at just two long-term care homes in Sarnia.
Central Sarnia and Point Edward have reported the largest number of cases with 100, followed by South Sarnia with 94, according to the health unit’s COVID-19 mapping tool, unveiled earlier this week.
According to the map, Sarnia and Bright’s Grove have 60 cases, Rural area 1 on the map shows 61 cases, followed by Rural area 2 with 37 cases.
Rural area 1 is comprised of Petrolia, Enniskillen, Brooke-Alvinston, Oil Springs, Dawn-Euphemia, and St Clair. Rural area 2 is made up of Lambton Shores, Plympton-Wyoming, Warwick, and Kettle and Stony Point First Nations.
At least 58 people have been hospitalized for the virus, most recently this month. The patient was discharged on Tuesday from Bluewater Health hospital.
LPH officials say nearly 44,600 people had been tested in the county as of Oct. 17.
— With files from Matthew Trevithick, Sawyer Bogdan and Ryan Rocca.
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