Eleven people have tested positive for the coronavirus while 10 have recovered, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported on Tuesday.
Health officials also reported a new school-linked case, while an outbreak has been declared at University Hospital.
The region’s total case count stands at 1,278, of which 1,092 have recovered and 63 have died, most recently on Saturday involving a 69-year-old man not linked to a seniors’ facility.
It leaves at least 123 known active cases in the region due in part to a 70-case surge reported between Saturday and Monday.
Of the 11 new cases, 10 are from London while one is from Strathroy-Caradoc.
Three are aged 19 or younger, five are in their 20s, and one each are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and one is aged 80 or older.
Five have their exposure source listed as being the contact of a confirmed case, while five are pending or undetermined. One has no known link.
Health officials reported 20 cases and nine recoveries on Monday, and reported one death, 50 cases — including a record 37 on Sunday — and 11 recoveries over the weekend.
No new hospitalizations were reported Tuesday by the health unit. At least 133 people have been hospitalized, with 33 in intensive care. The number of people currently hospitalized is unclear, but numbers between zero and five, according to London Health Sciences Centre.
The region has reported double-digit case increases the last five days in a row, with two days reporting more than 20, and one day reporting more than 30.
Local health officials have confirmed 134 cases of COVID-19 just since the start of November, 40 cases more than what was seen in the first 10 days of October, and 124 more than the first 10 days of September.
The increase in cases had Dr. Chris Mackie, the region’s medical officer of health, commenting Monday that it was possible the province may move the region to a stricter level in its new pandemic framework. London is currently in “prevent,” the least restrictive level.
“Nobody wants to get back into a lockdown situation. That’s what we all need to work to try and avoid. At the current trajectory, that seems like it is possible,” he said, adding the change could come later this week or the weekend.
“It’s hard to see how the case counts that we have would not qualify for the Protect level, but again, that’s a decision that happens on a weekly basis at this point, not daily.”
The region’s seven-day average for new cases stands at 17.85 as of Tuesday, while looking back to Oct. 27, the 14-day average is 12.07. The cumulative incident rate for London and Middlesex is 251.8 per 100,000 people, while Ontario’s is 574.5.
For at least the seventh day in a row, another school-linked case has been reported in the London and Middlesex region.
The case, confirmed late Monday night by the Thames Valley District School Board, was reported at Arthur Ford Public School in London in its before-and-after-school program, according to school board officials.
It’s unclear if the case involves a staff member or student.
It’s among 14 school-linked cases that are currently active in the region, the health unit says. At least 32 have been reported since the start of the school year.
Cases remain active at other TVDSB schools including Northbrae Public School (one student), Wilton Grove Public School (in before-and-after school program), Lambeth Public School (two students), Westminster Secondary School (one student), Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School (one student), and Oakridge Secondary School (two students.)
The London District Catholic School Board also reports four cases are active at Sir Arthur Carty Catholic School — it’s not entirely clear yet how many are staff and/or students — while one is active at St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School involving a student.
Since-resolved cases were reported on:
- Sept. 21 at H.B. Beal Secondary School involving a student.
- Oct. 5 and Oct. 8 at École élémentaire La Pommeraie, both involving staff members.
- Oct. 7 at Saunders Secondary School involving a student.
- Oct. 9 and Oct. 12 at Sir Arthur Currie Public School, one involving a staff member, the other involving a student. The cases resulted in an outbreak declaration, which resolved on Oct. 30.
- Oct. 12 at Mary Wright Public School in Strathroy involving a student.
- Oct. 13 at Northdale Central Public School in Dorchester involving a student.
- Oct. 17 at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School involving a student.
- Oct. 21 at Lambeth Public School involving a student.
- Oct. 25 at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School involving a student, at St. Andre Bessette Secondary School involving a student and at St. Kateri Separate School involving two students.
- Oct. 29 at École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc involving one staff member, at West Nissouri Public School involving one student, and at A.B. Lucas Secondary School involving one staff member.
- Oct. 31 at Eagle Heights Public School involving one staff member.
On Monday, Dr. Mackie stated that a very small number of cases came as a result of transmission within the school environment.
“It’s not that students are getting COVID in schools and then testing positive, it’s that children are testing positive because there’s a virus in the community and they happen to be children that attend schools.”
Health officials say two outbreaks at local seniors’ facilities are over, however, a new outbreak has been declared within London Health Sciences Centre.
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LHSC says the outbreak has been declared at University Hospital in 4IP General Medicine. Few other details have been released, including the number of people infected.
Meantime, two outbreaks at Strathmere Lodge and Chartwell Royalcliffe Retirement Residence are over.
The outbreaks were declared Oct. 23 and 26, respectively, and were deemed over on Nov. 6 and Monday, respectively.
It leaves just one active outbreak in the region, located at Henley Place Long-Term Care Residence. The outbreak, declared Oct. 31, affects the facility’s Harris and Medway areas.
At least 46 institutional outbreaks have been declared in the region since March, including 40 at seniors’ facilities.
The seniors’ facility outbreaks have been linked to at least 223 cases in the region — around 19 per cent of all cases reported — involving 112 residents and 111 staff members.
The outbreaks are also linked to at least 39 deaths, most recently on Nov. 2.
While cases have been reported among all age groups, people under 30 continue to appear most, health unit figures show.
Of the 134 cases reported this month, 65 of them — nearly half — have involved people under 30. Twenty-five have involved people aged 19 or younger, while 40 have involved people in their 20s.
It was a similar story last month. Of the 265 cases reported through October, 110 — about 41.5 per cent — involved people under 30.
Overall, people in their 20s account for the most number of cases during the pandemic — 313, or 24.6 per cent.
On Tuesday, London police announced that two people in their 20s had been charged in connection with a massive Halloween party on Beaufort Street that saw as many as 150 people attend.
The party has since been tied to at least three positive coronavirus cases. The cases were among the 37 reported on Sunday. It remains to be seen whether additional people will be charged, or if the party — or other parties like it — leads to a spike in cases, such as the one the region is currently seeing.
Meanwhile, the health unit says an outbreak declared Oct. 11 at Western University’s London Hall residence has been declared over. The outbreak was linked to at least six cases.
Tuesday marks the first day of appointment-only testing at Carling Heights Optimist Centre. The assessment centre shifted to an appointment model as of Sunday, replacing the time-card system it had used for more than a month.
Appointment testing is also still available at Oakridge Arena, and for certain asymptomatic people at eight local pharmacies.
Last week, officials urged symptomatic residents to get tested following a slump in visits to the assessment centres. People are urged to get tested within 24 to 48 hours of showing symptoms.
Carling Heights is still reporting a dip in visits — 176 on Monday, 178 on Sunday, and 249 on Saturday. Oakridge Arena, however, has seen client visits rise, numbering more than 300 every day since Nov. 2.
Ontario
Provincially, Ontario reported a new record high of 1,388 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday along with 15 new deaths.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says 520 cases are in Toronto, 395 in Peel Region, and 100 in York Region.
Elliott says there are also 72 new cases in Halton Region and 50 in Niagara Region.
The province says it has conducted 29,125 tests since the last daily report.
It also reported 159 new COVID-19 cases related to schools, including at least 103 among students.
Those bring the number of schools with a reported case to 601 out of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly funded schools.
Elgin and Oxford
Six people have tested positive for the coronavirus while another 29 have recovered, Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported Tuesday.
It brings the region’s total case count to 386, of which 351 have recovered and five have died. The death toll has not changed since early July.
There are now 30 known active cases in the region, with 11 located in Woodstock, six in Norwich, two in Aylmer and South-West Oxford, and one each in Blandford-Blenheim, East Zorra-Tavistock, Ingersoll, Tillsonburg and Zorra.
Four active cases are listed in Bayham, a significant drop from previous days when more than 30 active cases had been reported. The town has been the site of a large outbreak at a local farm that sickened at least 40 people.
The health unit says at least one person is currently in intensive care. A total of 25 people have been hospitalized for the virus since March, including 13 who have needed intensive care.
No school-linked cases have been reported. One case, reported Oct. 31, remains active at South Ridge Public School in Tillsonburg involving a student.
Two other school-linked cases had been reported previously involving St. Thomas Community Christian School and Mitchell Hepburn Public School.
The province’s database also still lists a child-care centre in Woodstock — Oxford Community Child Care — as being the site of two cases, one involving a child and another involving a staff member.
At long-term care and retirement homes in the region, one outbreak remains active. The outbreak was declared Oct. 24 at Secord Trails in Ingersoll and involves one staff case.
Seven outbreaks have been declared in the region since March, linked to 14 cases, of which all but one have involved staff members.
According to the health unit, 91 cases have been reported in Aylmer since the pandemic began, giving the municipality an incident rate of 1,214.6 cases per 100,000 people, more than that reported by both Peel Public Health and Toronto Public Health.
Elsewhere, Bayham has seen 74 cases, driven largely by the farm outbreak, clocking its incident rate at 1,000 per 100,000 people.
Woodstock has seen 61 cases, while St. Thomas has seen 50, Tillsonburg, 33, Norwich 16, and Ingersoll 11. Dutton/Dunwich and East Zorra-Tavistock have seen 10 each.
As of the week of Oct. 25, the region’s test positivity rate stood at 1.0 per cent. At least 2,654 people were tested for the virus that week.
Huron and Perth
Three people have tested positive while two others have recovered, Huron Perth Public Health said Tuesday.
It brings the total number of confirmed cases in the region to 206, of which 150 have recovered and eight have died, most recently on Saturday.
Of the three new cases, one is from South Huron, one is from St. Marys, and one is from Stratford.
It leaves 48 known active cases in the region.
Health officials reported one death, 34 cases, and six recoveries on Monday in the health unit’s first update since Friday.
At least 32 of the 34 new cases were reported in Stratford, where an outbreak at Cedarcroft Place, a local retirement home, has grown exponentially since it was first declared on Oct. 27.
As of Tuesday, 50 people had tested positive due to the outbreak, including 34 residents and 16 staff — four more staff than the day before.
(The health unit says staff may reside outside of Huron-Perth, and while they don’t appear in the region’s overall case tally, are still counted in the individual outbreak tally.)
In addition, at least three residents at the home have since died.
“We continue to look for reasons as to why the spread does continue. We have not determined how COVID was introduced into the facility in the first place,” said the region’s medical officer of health. Dr. Miriam Klassen, on Monday.
In addition to that outbreak, two other outbreaks remain active at Knollcrest Lodge in Perth East and at Mitchell Nursing Home in West Perth. One staff case each has been reported at each facility, the health unit says.
At least 12 institutional outbreaks have been declared since March, linked to 77 cases and seven deaths. Four deaths were reported at Greenwood Court in the spring.
One school-linked case remains active in the region, located at Milverton Public School involving one student, according to the province.
Previously, one probable case had been reported Oct. 16 at Stratford’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School. However, it was not officially confirmed and was not reported in the province’s database.
By location, Stratford has reported a total of 92 cases and seven deaths, while North Perth has seen 55 cases, including 21 in Perth East and 19 in North Perth.
Huron County, meantime, has seen 51 cases, including 14 in Central Huron and 13 in Bluewater, while St. Marys has reported eight cases and one death.
Some 47,737 tests had been conducted by the health unit as of Oct. 25, the most recent figures available. The test per cent positivity rate that week was 0.5 per cent. Just over 2,100 people were tested.
Sarnia and Lambton
One person has tested positive for the coronavirus while another has recovered, Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported Tuesday.
It brings the region’s total case count to 381, of which 347 have recovered. Twenty-five people have also died, most recently in early June.
The number of active cases in the county remains at nine. At least two are in hospital, according to Bluewater Health, a decline of one from the day before.
Health officials reported one recovery on Monday and reported three cases on Sunday.
There is one active school-linked case in the region. The case, reported at Riverview Central School in Port Lambton on Sunday, involves one student, according to the province.
It’s the fifth school case to be reported in the region since the school year began.
Two cases have been reported at Northern Collegiate Institute and Vocational School in Sarnia, while one each has been at Bright’s Grove Public School in Sarnia and Colonel Cameron Public School in Corunna.
Meantime, no change was reported involving local seniors’ facilities, where one outbreak remains active. The outbreak, declared Oct. 30 at Petrolia’s Fiddick’s Retirement Home, involves one resident case.
It’s among 13 outbreaks that have been declared since March, of which 10 have been at seniors’ facilities, while one has been at Bluewater Health. They’re linked to 60 resident cases, 48 staff cases, and 16 deaths.
Two outbreaks have been reported at unnamed workplaces, linked to seven cases.
According to the health unit’s case map, the region designated as “Urban 2” (Central Sarnia and Point Edward) has recorded 102 cases, followed by “Urban 3” (South Sarnia) with 98.
At least 49,140 people had been tested in the county as of Oct. 31.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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