Six people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in London and Middlesex while 11 have recovered, officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported on Thursday.
It brings the region’s total case count to 880, of which 743 have recovered. Fifty-seven people have died, a tally unchanged since June 12.
It leaves at least 80 known active cases of the virus in the region. As many as 148 have been reported since the start of September as Ontario continues to deal with a second wave of the virus.
All six of Thursday’s cases were reported in London. Two are under the age of 20, two are in their 20s, one is in their 30s, and one is in their 40s.
Four contracted the virus through contact with a confirmed case, while two have their exposure source listed as pending or undetermined.
Health officials reported nine cases and 18 recoveries on Wednesday, one new case and one recovery on Tuesday, eight cases and one recovery on Monday, and 27 cases over the weekend, including 12 involving Western students.
It’s unclear if any of Thursday’s cases involve Western students. None of the nine from Wednesday were found to be linked to the university.
At least 70 cases have been reported since the start of September involving the university’s student population.
On Thursday, Dr. Chris Mackie, the region’s medical officer of health, said the health unit would stop releasing a regular tally of Western-linked cases, saying they represent a small number of new positives.
As many as 40 cases have been tied to two community outbreaks declared two weeks ago. A small number of those don’t involve students.
At least 23 cases have been tied to a large house party on the weekend of Sept. 12, while another 17 cases were related to “Western Student Outbreak Alpha.”
“For all intents and purposes, the outbreaks that have been declared earlier… are over,” Mackie said.
The number of cases involving local elementary or secondary schools remains unchanged at one. The case reported early last week involved a student at H.B. Beal.
Mackie noted that the health unit and city have been in talks to have municipal staff potentially assist in contact tracing efforts amid the pandemic’s second wave.
With the city’s two assessment centres reaching capacity early on a daily basis, the group co-running the centres, Thames Valley Family Health Team (TVFHT), has announced operational changes that will come into effect next week.
TVFHT officials say that starting Oct. 5, the Oakridge Arena assessment centre will move to booked appointments only, while the Carling Heights centre will conduct all walk-in testing and will see extended hours from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.
At Oakridge Arena, symptomatic children under 12 and symptomatic essential health-care workers will be prioritized, as will asymptomatic individuals in particular situations, such as seniors’ home residents and staff, farmworkers, and those in Indigenous communities.
At Carling Heights, patients who are symptomatic, have been notified of being exposed to the virus, live or work in a setting with an outbreak, or those eligible for testing as part of a targeted testing initiative will be prioritized.
Both will operate on the same days as they do now, with Oakridge Arena running Monday to Friday, and Carling Heights running seven days a week. Those looking to book an appointment at Oakridge Arena are asked to contact 519-667-6886.
The two assessment centres had previously shifted to a time card system to try and curb hours-long wait times. TVFHT says that system will be phased out at Oakridge Arena, but will continue at Carling Heights.
Multiple days over the past two weeks have seen the two assessment centres hit capacity within a short period of opening.
Despite that, Mackie said Thursday that the region has enough testing capacity, noting that the two centres have recently pivoted to focus on those who are symptomatic.
“Once you take out of the picture all those folks that were looking for testing but didn’t have symptoms, didn’t have a significant exposure, didn’t have any high-risk activities, then there actually is enough testing volume to serve the population,” he said.
“You still have long line-ups, in part, because… there’s this irony — and we’ve observed this over and over in public health — where if it’s publicly known that an item is scarce, people want it more than ever, which makes it even more scarce. So that’s part of what’s happened.”
Thursday’s news comes days after appointment-only asymptomatic testing at three London Shoppers Drug Mart locations ramped up.
Asked whether he thought pharmacy testing would be enough to divert demand away from the city’s two overburdened assessment centres, Mackie replied that he thought it would be helpful, but noted the situation was rapidly evolving.
“Awareness of line-ups generates line-ups, and awareness of the pharmacy might be enough to help people realize that if you absolutely do need a test, you will get it, and you don’t have to go and get a test before you have symptoms or before you have some kind of high-risk exposure. I think that would be really important,” he said.
“If we continue to see numbers across the province continue in an upward direction — our numbers have been high but fairly steady over the last couple of weeks — if we end up following that provincial trend, then it may be that our testing capacity needs to expand yet again.”
Mackie noted there are efforts to increase local testing capacity, highlighting Western University’s testing site and Middlesex Hospital Alliance’s talks in opening an assessment centre in Strathroy.
Just yesterday Middlesex-London Paramedic Service officially rolled out its mobile swabbing bus. The unit, made up of a decommissioned London Transit bus, will journey to different locations across the county based on demand. It will be in Lucan Thursday and in Thorndale on Friday.
Wednesday saw high demand at the inaugural stop in Dorchester, where the site reached capacity before it even opened.
“The last option, which we really don’t want to see used frequently, is testing in emergency rooms,” Mackie said.
“Emergency departments are not set up to handle a large number of COVID testing, and it’s not necessarily best from the perspective of keeping other people who might be vulnerable or ill for other reasons safe from those that are seeking testing from COVID and may actually be carrying the disease.”
Mackie says testing in primary care clinics is also an important part of the picture when it comes to testing capacity, but notes few are currently offering tests.
“Certainly that is available to them if they would like to offer that to the patients,” he said.
“The big challenge there is that a lot of primary care centres, a lot of the family doctors offices, are not set up to do the testing. They have some infection control practices in place, but a waiting room isn’t necessarily a great place for two-metre physical distancing.”
Turnaround time for tests done in London and Middlesex is largely within 48 hours, Mackie says, adding that a concern for health officials surrounds those who choose not to get tested for whatever reason, including long testing line-ups.
“If somebody doesn’t go to get tested at all … we completely miss the opportunity to make that diagnosis and get on top of any spread that might be related to that case,” he said.
“The fact that we’ve been able to bring those line-ups down a bit, I think, is very encouraging.”
The number of active outbreaks in the region remains at four.
The most recent outbreaks were declared on Sept. 24 at Meadow Park Care Centre in its blue and yellow units, and at Peoplecare Oak Crossing in its Red Oak area.
Two facility-wide outbreaks also remain at Country Terrace and Ashwood Manor Retirement Home.
At least 32 institutional outbreaks have been declared in the region during the pandemic including 26 at seniors’ facilities.
The outbreaks have been tied to 199 cases involving 108 residents and 91 staff. Thirty-five deaths have also been reported linked to the institutional outbreaks.
It’s unclear how many, if any, hospitalizations there are in the region. Real-time data is not released by the health unit, and LHSC will only issue a tally if patient cases rise above five.
A total of 117 people have been hospitalized, including 32 who have needed intensive care.
The region’s seven-day average for new cases stood at 7.85 as of Thursday. Looking back to Sept. 17, the 14-day average is 7.42. The region’s incident rate stood at 172.2 per 100,000 people, while Ontario’s was 343.7.
By age, health unit figures show people in their 20s account for the most number of cases, with 205, or about 23.3 per cent. At least 52 cases have been reported this month.
People in their 50s make up 119 of the region’s cases, or about 13.6 per cent, while those in their 30s and those 80 and above make up 116 and 111 cases, respectively.
Those aged 19 and under make up 93 cases — at least 54 of those are from this month.
Ontario
Provincially, Ontario reported 538 cases on Thursday and three new deaths.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 229 cases are being reported in Toronto, 101 cases in Peel Region, 66 in Ottawa, and 43 in York Region.
She says 60 per cent of the new cases are among people under the age of 40.
In total, 162 people are hospitalized in Ontario due to COVID-19, including 36 in intensive care.
The province is also reporting 65 new COVID-19 cases related to schools, including at least 29 among students.
Those bring the number of schools with a reported case to 307 out of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly-funded schools.
Elgin and Oxford
One person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus while one has recovered, officials with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported on Thursday.
It brings the region’s total case count to 270, of which 258 have recovered. Five have died, a tally unchanged since early July.
The new case was reported in St. Thomas while the recovery was reported in Woodstock.
Health officials reported two new cases and two recoveries on Wednesday.
It leaves at least seven known active cases — all in St. Thomas.
Health officials say two are under the age of 10, two are in their 20s, two are in their 30s, and one is in their 60s. Five are female and two are male.
None are currently in hospital. At least 23 people have been hospitalized, including 11 in intensive care.
Health officials say the exposure source of five of them is under investigation, while at least two became infected through close contact.
On Tuesday, officials with the Thames Valley District School Board reported that one case had been confirmed involving an individual at Mitchell Hepburn Public School in St. Thomas.
According to the province, the case, the first in SWPH’s area to involve an elementary or secondary school, involves a student.
The school remains open, with school board officials saying there was no evidence the case resulted from contact at the school.
Of the region’s seven active cases, 51 cases, or 19 per cent, involve people in their 50s, while 50 cases, or 18.5 per cent, involve people in their 20s. People in their 40s make up 38 cases, or 14 per cent.
Close contact has been linked to 108 cases, followed by workplaces with 39. Twenty-seven cases involve health-care workers, while 25 are linked to travel, and 13 to social gatherings.
Fifty-five cases have their exposure source listed as unknown, while seven are under investigation.
By Location, Aylmer has recorded the most number of cases, 82, followed by St. Thomas with 44, Bayham with 38, Woodstock with 30, Tillsonburg with 25, and Dutton/Dunwich with 10.
Ten other communities have case counts in the single digits.
The region’s per cent positivity rate was 0.1 per cent for the week of Sept. 20, the most recent data available. Nearly 3,000 tests were conducted that week.
Huron and Perth
No new cases, deaths, or recoveries were reported by officials with Huron Perth Public Health on Thursday.
The region’s total case count remains at 129, of which now 122 have recovered. Five people have also died.
Health officials reported no change on Wednesday.
There are two known active cases in the region.
The health unit has reported 46 cases in Perth County and 45 in Huron County.
Elsewhere, Stratford has seen 32 cases, and St. Marys 6. Four deaths have been reported in Stratford and one in St. Marys.
At least 27 cases have been linked to people in their 20s, followed by people in their 50s with 24 and people in their 60s with 22. At least 55 per cent of cases involve women and girls.
At least 37,438 tests had been conducted by the health unit as of Sept. 20, the most recent figures available. That week saw 2,269 tests completed and a per cent positivity rate of 0.1 per cent.
Sarnia and Lambton
One person has recovered from the novel coronavirus, officials with Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported late Wednesday.
The region’s overall case count remains unchanged at 346, of which now 319 have recovered. Twenty-five people have died, most recently in early June.
It leaves at least two known active cases in the region, the exact locations of which have not been released by the health unit.
Health officials reported no change late Tuesday. The county has reported seven cases through the month of September compared to 22 in August.
No change has been reported to the region’s overall hospitalization count, which has stayed at 58 since late May, or to its outbreak count, which has remained at 10 since mid-August.
In Lambton, close contact is associated with 135 cases, followed by outbreaks with 113 and travel with seven. Seventy-five cases still have their exposure source listed as unknown.
By age, people 80 and up account for 76 cases, while people in their 50s make up 52. At least 196 cases, or 57 per cent, involve women and girls.
According to health officials, a total of 27,811 tests have been received as of Sept. 27. Only six per cent of the 1,181 cases done the previous week had a turnaround time of within two days.
The per cent positivity rate remains at 1.2 per cent.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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