Three people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in London and Middlesex while two people have recovered, health officials reported on Monday.
Health officials also reported that an outbreak declared at Mount Hope last month had been resolved.
The new cases bring the total number confirmed in the region to 539, of which now 382 have been resolved, or about 71 per cent of cases. Fifty-three people have also died, most recently over the weekend.
All three cases are from London, and none are linked to long-term care or retirement homes, according to the health unit.
Of the region’s cases, 502 have been in London, while 20 have been in Strathroy-Caradoc. Elsewhere, seven cases have been in Middlesex Centre, four each have been in North Middlesex and Thames Centre, while there has been one each in Lucan Biddulph and Southwest Middlesex.
The three cases come after a weekend that saw 11 new cases and four recoveries reported on Saturday and one death, five new cases and four recoveries reported on Sunday.
The death involved a woman in her 70s from a long-term care home.
Only one of the 16 weekend cases was linked to local seniors’ facilities and involved a resident at a retirement home.
Health unit officials say 12 of the cases reported over the weekend were linked to an outbreak involving migrant farm workers at Ontario Plants Propagation in Elgin County.
That brings the number of positive cases involving migrant workers at the farm to at least 21, including one case reported by Southwestern-Public Health.
Seven of the cases are close contacts of the initial case, and 13 cases are from across the rest of the farm, said Dr. Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for London and Middlesex, on Monday. All are self-isolating.
“We’re still waiting for lab results on 11 of the 74 migrant farm workers that have been tested,” Mackie said.
“We haven’t had any significant, severe outcomes in that group. It’s generally a pretty healthy group, and they’ve, so far, been able to handle the illness fairly well.”
Of the 37 cases that have been reported in London and Middlesex since last Monday, only four have been tied to local seniors’ homes.
The most recent seniors’ facility-linked case is associated with an outbreak declared on Saturday at Chelsey Park Retirement Community, health unit data shows.
It’s one of three outbreaks that have been declared at Chelsey Park during the pandemic. The other two have been in the facility’s nursing home, of which one remains active.
Elsewhere, health officials said Monday that an outbreak declared on May 16 at Mount Hope Centre for Long-Term Care (St. Mary’s fifth floor) had been resolved.
It was the second outbreak to be declared on the floor during the pandemic following an outbreak that was active from April 9 to 23.
At least two resident cases, including one death, have been reported as a result of both outbreaks, according to health unit data.
Long-term care and retirement homes have accounted for at least 19 of the 24 outbreaks that have been declared in the region during the pandemic, of which seven remain active, all at seniors’ facilities.
Including the two active outbreaks at Chelsey Park, outbreaks also remain at Henley Place, Country Terrace, Waverley Mansion, Kensington Village (LTCH) and Sisters of St. Joseph.
Health unit figures show 101 cases have been reported at long-term care homes involving 60 residents and 41 staff. Twenty-three deaths have been reported.
At retirement homes, 67 cases have been reported involving 44 residents and 23 staff. Ten deaths have also been reported.
The number of hospitalized patients in the city has decreased, according to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), which reported Monday that 11 patients were being treated at University and Victoria hospitals as of midnight Monday — down from 15 on Friday.
The organization no longer releases how many patients are in intensive care.
Two patients were being treated at Parkwood Institute’s main building as of May 19, according to the most recent update from St. Joseph’s Health Care.
According to the health unit, of the region’s cases, nearly 20 per cent have involved hospitalizations, with 5.4 per cent requiring admission to intensive care.
People over the age of 50 make up about 59 per cent of the region’s cases but 89 per cent of its hospitalizations.
At the hospitals themselves, at least 42 LHSC staff members had contracted the virus as of Friday, while at St. Joseph’s Healthcare, at least 18 staff had tested positive as of May 19.
It’s not clear how many cases are active or where within the organizations the staff worked.
Ontario
Provincially, Ontario reported 404 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and 10 more deaths.
That brings the province to a total of 28,263 cases — an increase of 1.5 per cent over the previous day.
It includes 2,276 deaths and 22,153 cases that have been resolved.
Hospitalizations and the number of people on ventilators remained steady, but the number of patients in intensive care increased.
The number of tests completed in the previous day dropped to 14,379 — down from a high of over 20,000 reported Saturday — as the amount tends to fall after a weekend.
Elgin and Oxford
No new cases, deaths or recoveries were reported Monday by officials with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH).
That keeps the number of confirmed cases at 74, of which 60 have been resolved, or about 81 per cent. Four people have died, a tally that has not changed since April 22.
Health officials reported one new case on Sunday, the first new case after at least four days. No recoveries or deaths were reported on either Saturday or Sunday.
Sunday’s case was not linked to an active outbreak at an Ingersoll long-term care home.
At least eight staff members from Secord Trails have tested positive since the outbreak was declared on May 18.
It’s one of three outbreaks to be declared in the region and is the only one still active. The outbreaks have not resulted in any deaths.
Ten cases remain active in the region, with eight cases in Oxford County, including four in Ingersoll and two each in Tillsonburg and Woodstock.
Two cases remain active in Elgin County in St. Thomas.
None of the active cases have been hospitalized, health unit data shows. Ten people have been admitted to hospital for COVID-19 since late March, seven at St. Thomas Elgin General.
Nearly 5,000 tests have been administered in Elgin and Oxford counties as of Monday, with 440 still pending results.
The region’s test positive per cent rate stands at 1.6 per cent, down from 1.8 on Friday.
Huron and Perth
One person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and one person has recovered, health officials in Huron and Perth counties reported on Monday.
The new case brings the total number of cases reported to 53, of which 45 have now been resolved. Five people have also died, a tally that has remained unchanged for several weeks.
The new case was reported in St. Marys while the recovery was reported in Perth County, according to the health unit.
The new case is the first to be reported in St. Marys since March when health officials announced Huron and Perth’s first two coronavirus cases there. One later died, while the other recovered.
The region’s other most recent case was reported on Friday involving an individual from Stratford, health unit figures show. That case was the first to be reported in Huron and Perth in nearly a week.
No new cases, deaths or recoveries were reported in the region on Saturday or Sunday.
Two other cases remain active in the region, including one in Goderich and one in Stratford.
The case in Goderich involves a resident at Maitland Manor, a long-term care facility, which has declared an outbreak — the region’s seventh and only active outbreak.
Twenty-six cases have been reported in Stratford, along with four deaths that are linked to a since-resolved outbreak at Greenwood Court. The outbreak saw six residents and 10 staff infected.
Elsewhere, 13 cases have been reported in Huron County, 11 have been in Perth County and three have been in St Marys.
The health unit said 3,422 tests had been administered in Huron and Perth as of Monday. Of those, 174 were awaiting test results.
Sarnia and Lambton
No new cases have been confirmed and one person has recovered, officials with Lambton Public Health reported late Sunday, keeping the total number of confirmed cases at 263.
Of those, 201 have now recovered — or about 76 per cent of cases — and 22 have died, a figure that remained unchanged.
Health officials reported one new case and two recoveries late Friday as well as two new cases and two recoveries late Saturday.
One of the cases reported Saturday involved a resident of Vision Nursing Home, a hard-hit long-term care facility in Sarnia that has seen 25 residents and 24 staff infected since an outbreak was declared on April 23. Seven residents have since died.
At least nine of the facility’s residents and 16 of its staff remained positive with the virus as of Friday, according to Bluewater Health hospital.
The hospital announced last week that the residents would be moved to Bluewater Health in a bid to keep the outbreak -— the worst seen in the county — from spreading further.
The hospital itself has dealt with its own staff infections — at least 15 over the course of the pandemic.
An outbreak also remains active at Lambton Meadowview Villa in Petrolia where one staff member has tested positive. It’s the second outbreak to be declared at the facility, following an outbreak that was active from April 13 to 23 involving one staff member.
Bluewater Health was treating 13 COVID-19 patients on Sunday and was also seeing 20 patients who were suspected to be positive or awaiting tests.
As of late Thursday, 6,657 test results had been received by county health officials. It’s unclear how many tests remain pending.
— With files from the Canadian Press
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