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Nine people have tested positive for the coronavirus while 13 have recovered, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported Friday.

The update brings the region’s total case count to 1,323, of which 1,119 people have recovered and 63 have died. The most recent death was reported Saturday.

Friday marks the first time in eight days that the daily case increase has not been in the double digits.

There are 141 known active cases of the virus in the region, the health unit says.

Of Friday’s nine cases, all are from London. Three individuals are aged 19 or under, two each are in their 20s and 70s, and one each are in their 30s and 50s.

Four cases have no known link listed as the exposure source, while three contracted the virus through close contact with a confirmed case. Two cases are pending or undetermined.

For the second day in a row, the region’s non-intensive care hospitalized tally rose by one to a total of 103. It’s not clear how many people are currently hospitalized, as such information isn’t readily available.

London Health Sciences Centre said Thursday in one of its twice-weekly updates that the number of COVID-19-positive patients in its care was “five or less,” while St. Joseph’s Health Care reported no such patients at its facilities.

Health officials reported 23 cases and seven recoveries Thursday, 14 cases and seven recoveries Wednesday, 11 cases and 10 recoveries on Tuesday, and 20 cases and nine recoveries on Monday.

At least 180 cases have been reported in London and Middlesex just since the start of November. The region’s seven-day new case average sits around 17.85 as of Friday, according to health unit figures. Of all the cases seen this month, half have been people under the age of 30, with 36 aged 19 or under and 55 in their 20s.

On Thursday, the region’s associate medical officer of health, Dr. Alex Summers, said London-Middlesex was seeing increased transmission rates in indoor environments where people are maskless, not social distancing, and around people not in their immediate household.

“We aren’t seeing transmission in our schools. We aren’t seeing transmission in our long-term care homes or retirement homes. But we are seeing it in places where we find ourselves after school or after work or on the evenings or the weekends,” he said, stressing the importance that people refrain from gathering inside with people outside their household.

While health officials say no cases have been identified that have been tied specifically to any particular Halloween party or gathering, the timing of the rise in cases in the region comes between one and two weeks of the Halloween weekend.

“It’s time to hearken back a little bit to what it was like back in the spring where we were so able to drive down the transmission and flatten the curve by making sure we were really keeping that distance between one another,” Summers said.

The region will likely see tighter restrictions implemented by the province soon based on several factors, he said.

“What is very clear is that we have metrics — be it incident rates or per cent positivity of tests or outbreaks — we have metrics that suggest that we require more restrictions in place here locally and we will be working to determine how best to make that happen.”

Schools

The region’s school case tally has risen by two after the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) reported cases late Thursday.

The cases were reported at Eagle Heights Public School and Westminster Secondary School. It’s not clear if they involve staff or students.

Both schools already had one active case each. A student case was reported at Eagle Heights Public School on Nov. 10, while a student case was reported at Westminster Secondary on Nov. 7. Prior to that, Eagle Heights had reported a since-resolved staff case on Oct. 31.

As of Friday, 17 active school-linked cases remain in the region. They’re among 36 in total that have been reported since the start of September.

In addition to the two Eagle Heights and two Westminster cases, active cases remain at the following TVDSB schools: Wilton Grove Public School (in before-and-after-school program), Lambeth Public School (two students), Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School (one student), Oakridge Secondary School (two students) and Arthur Ford Public School (one staff member in the before-and-after-school program.)

The London District Catholic School Board says cases also remain active at three of its schools: Catholic Central High School (one student), Sir Arthur Carty Catholic School (four students) and St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School (one 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.
• Nov. 2 at Northbrae Public School involving one student.

Institutional outbreaks

No change has been reported in regards to institutional outbreaks in the region.

Two outbreaks remain active at University Hospital, while one is active at Henley Place Long-Term Care Home in its Harris and Medway areas.

The University Hospital outbreaks, declared Nov. 10 and 11, are located in 4IP General Medicine and 9IP Orthopaedics, respectively.

It’s not clear how many people have become infected due to both outbreaks. At least three tested positive in the outbreak in 4IP General Medicine, according to a CBC London report.

No designated care providers or visitors are currently permitted in either affected unit as a result.

Since the pandemic began, at least 48 institutional outbreaks have been declared in London and Middlesex, of which 40 have been at seniors’ facilities.

Outbreaks at long-term care homes have been linked to 66 resident cases, 79 staff cases and 26 deaths, while retirement home outbreaks have been tied to 46 resident cases, 32 staff cases and 13 deaths.

Testing

Both Carling Heights and Oakridge Arena are operating by appointment only, while appointment testing is available for certain asymptomatic people at eight local pharmacies.

Since Carling Heights shifted to appointment-only earlier this week, a notable increase in visits has been reported.

Last week, the site recorded between 195 and 251 visits per day. This week, the centre recorded 401 visits on Tuesday, 446 on Wednesday and 298 on Thursday.

Oakridge Arena has also been reporting between 300 and 345 visits per day over the last week and a half following an appeal by health officials last week for symptomatic people to get tested.

According to the health unit, the region’s test per cent positivity rate was 1.7 per cent as of the week of Nov. 1 — up from 0.7 per cent the week before — with just over 6,000 people tested.

Ontario

Ontario is reporting 1,396 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, with 17 deaths related to the virus.

The new case total is a decrease from Thursday’s record daily high of 1,575.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 440 new cases in Toronto, 440 in Peel and 155 in York Region.

Toronto is set to move to Ontario’s red zone of tiered restrictions Saturday while imposing measures of its own that will extend certain restrictions that have been in place.

Elliott also says there are 1,018 more resolved cases and 40,509 tests completed.

There are 452 people in hospital due to COVID-19, 106 in intensive care and 67 on ventilators.

Projections released by the province on Thursday found that Ontario could be seeing 6,500 new cases per day by mid-December if the pandemic is not brought under control.

Elgin and Oxford

Four people have tested positive for the coronavirus while eight others have recovered, Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported Friday.

That brings the region’s total case count to 415, of which 366 people have recovered and five have died. The most recent death was reported in early July.

There remain 44 known active cases in the region, with nearly all of them in Oxford County.

Fifteen cases are active in Woodstock, while 10 are active in Norwich and three each in Ingersoll and South-West Oxford. Two cases each are active in Blandford-Blenheim, East Zorra-Tavistock, Tillsonburg and Zorra.

In Elgin County, meantime, four cases are active in Aylmer while one is in St. Thomas.

According to a report in the Woodstock Sentinel-Review, several cases in Norwich involve congregants of a local church.

No cases were in hospital as of Thursday, the most recent update from the health unit.

The Thames Valley District School Board says a presumptive case of the virus at Straffordville Public School has since been confirmed as positive.

The case was first reported Wednesday, along with two student cases at Northdale Public School in Woodstock.

All three cases remain active, as does a case at South Ridge Public School in Tillsonburg involving one student.

So far this school year, six cases in total have been reported at local schools. Two other cases had been reported previously involving St. Thomas Community Christian School and Mitchell Hepburn Public School.

Oxford Community Child Care in Woodstock is still listed on the province’s database as being the site of two cases involving a child and staff member.

An outbreak has been declared at a long-term care home in Norwich, the health unit says.

The outbreak, declared Thursday, involves Bethany Care Home and has seen one resident at the home test positive.

It’s currently the only active institutional outbreak. Eight in total have been declared since March, linked to 15 cases, of which all but two have involved staff members. No deaths have been reported.

By location, 95 cases have been reported in Aylmer since the pandemic began, giving the municipality an incident rate of 1,268 cases per 100,000 people.

Elsewhere, Bayham has seen 74 cases, driven largely by a farm outbreak earlier this month, while Woodstock has seen 69, St. Thomas 51, Tillsonburg 35, Norwich 23 and Ingersoll 13.

As of the week of Nov. 1, the region’s test positivity rate stood at 0.9 per cent. At least 2,833 people were tested for the virus that week.

Huron and Perth

Six people have tested positive for the coronavirus while three others have recovered, Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) reported Friday.

The update brings the region’s total case count to 228, of which 155 people have recovered. Nine deaths have also been reported, most recently on Thursday involving a resident of Cedarcroft Place, a Stratford retirement home that has been experiencing a severe outbreak.

Of the six cases reported, three are in Perth East while three are in Stratford, health unit figures show. The Stratford cases don’t appear to be linked to the Cedarcroft outbreak.

The updated leaves at least 64 known active cases in the region. Of those, one is currently in hospital, the health unit says.

The Cedarcroft outbreak has been linked to at least 52 cases involving 36 residents — four of whom have since died — and 16 staff members. On Thursday, the health unit reported that two residents of the home were in hospital, including one in intensive care.

The outbreak was first declared on Oct. 27 with three cases reported.

One other outbreak remains active in the region at Knollcrest Lodge in Perth East. That outbreak was declared on Nov. 7 and is linked to one staff case.

At least 12 outbreaks have been declared at 10 facilities in the province since March. They’re linked to 79 cases and at least eight deaths — four at Cedarcroft and four at Greenwood Court in the spring.

No new cases have been reported involving schools. Three cases are currently active and all involve students. Two are at Milverton Public School in Perth East and one is at Shakespeare Public School in Stratford.

The second Milverton case, and the case at Shakespeare, were reported by the Avon Maitland District School Board on Wednesday.

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.

Stratford has reported a total of 104 cases and eight deaths, while Perth County has seen 64 cases, including 29 in Perth East and 20 in North Perth.

Huron County, meantime, has seen 52 cases, including 15 in Central Huron and 13 in Bluewater, while St. Marys has reported eight cases and one death.

Some 51,884 tests had been conducted by the health unit as of Nov. 1, the most recent figures available. The test per cent positivity rate that week was 1.3 per cent. Just over 2,100 people were tested.

Sarnia and Lambton

Two people have tested positive for the coronavirus while one person has recovered, Lambton Public Health reported Friday.

The region’s total case tally stands at 382, of which 349 people have recovered. Twenty-five people have died, a figure unchanged since early June.

There are eight known active cases in the region, the locations of which are unclear as such information is not released by the health unit.

There is currently one person hospitalized due to the virus, Bluewater Health says. A total of three have been hospitalized since the end of October.

At local schools, one case remains active, located at Riverview Central School in Port Lambton. The case, reported Sunday, involves a student.

It’s among five school cases that have been reported since the start of the school year.

Two have been 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.

Meanwhile, no new institutional or workplace outbreaks have been declared in the region. The last active outbreak, reported at Fiddick’s Retirement Home in Petrolia on Oct. 30, was declared over on Wednesday. It was linked to one resident case.

Of the 13 outbreaks declared in Lambton since March, 10 have been at seniors’ homes, one has been at Bluewater Health, and two have been at unnamed workplaces.

The seniors’ home and hospital outbreaks have been linked to 60 resident/patient cases, 48 staff cases and 16 deaths. The deaths occurred at Landmark Village and Vision Nursing Home.

The workplace outbreaks have been linked to seven cases.

At least 51,383 people had been tested in the county as of Nov. 7, the most recent figures available.

— With files from The Canadian Press