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For at least the sixth time this month, and the third time in just seven days, the London and Middlesex region broke yet another single-day case record on Thursday after health officials reported one death and 58 new coronavirus cases.
The update brings the region’s total case tally to 2,257, of which 1,858 have recovered, 32 more than the day before. At least 82 deaths have been reported to date, leaving at least 317 active cases in the region.
Health officials confirm that Thursday’s fatality involved a man in his 80s whose death was linked to COVID-19 outbreaks at University Hospital, which have now claimed a total of 17 lives. At least 13 of the 16 deaths reported this month have been tied to the hospital.
Thursday marks the third time this week that the region has recorded a single-day case jump above 50. At least 610 cases have been reported in London and Middlesex so far this month, more than any monthly total up to this point.
December has already recorded 108 cases more than all of November, which has the second-highest monthly case total.
Of the 58 cases reported Thursday, all but six are from London, according to the health unit. Five are from Middlesex Centre and one is from Thames Centre.
Those infected span every age bracket tracked by the health unit, with people under 40 making up more than half of all cases.
Eight are aged 19 or younger, 15 are in their 20s, 10 are in their 30s, seven are in their 40s, five are in their 50s, nine are in their 60s, and two each are in their 70s, and are 80-plus.
Thirty-seven of the cases have their exposure source listed as outbreak, while 14 are said to have contracted the virus through close contact. Three cases have no known link, three are pending or undetermined, and one is due to travel.
Despite some cases being listed as due to outbreaks, it’s not clear how many, if any, are due to outbreaks reported at London Health Sciences Centre’s University and Victoria hospitals.
The health unit’s outbreak designation also includes workplaces, schools, and other locations.
London and Middlesex is currently in the red-protect level of the province’s COVID-19 Response Framework. (Full details on what comes with a move to red-control can be found in the framework document.)
“Nobody in London likes where we are right now, nobody in London wants our situation to worsen, and everybody in London wants things to improve as fast as possible,” said Mayor Ed Holder Thursday.
“As such, we have only three options: first, we can stay where we are in red and under these current restrictions, or the province can decide to place us into full lockdown, or we can work like hell to turn this around and get back to orange,” he continued.
“This begins and ends with us. Our biggest risk right now, at least in the short term, are the holiday parties and Christmas gatherings. We simply can’t do it this year. It’s too risky. It’s too dangerous.”
The region’s seven-day average stands at 35.42 as of Thursday, while the 14-day average is 37.57.
As of Thursday, the region’s cumulative incidence rate is 433.5 per 100,000 people, compared to Ontario’s 971.4.
Hospitalizations
The number of inpatients hospitalized with COVID-19 at London Health Sciences Centre has declined for another day, down to 23 from 36 on Wednesday. The tally stood at 39 on Friday of last week.
Of those, fewer than five people are in intensive care or critical care, the organization said.
Active staff cases within LHSC continue to decline as well, down to 31 from 38 on Wednesday. The tally stood at 47 on Tuesday and 51 on Friday of last week.
Most of those infections are likely linked to ongoing outbreaks at University Hospital.
Meantime, no COVID-19 patients were reported to be in the care of St. Joseph’s Health Care London as of Thursday, however active staff cases within the organization have risen to two, one more than the day before.
The health unit says at least 234 people have been admitted to hospital due to the coronavirus since the pandemic began, including 43 who have needed intensive care.
The Ontario Hospital Association’s board of directors is calling for new and stricter lockdowns in hard-hit regions to halt the rapid spread of COVID-19.
It comes after the board held an emergency meeting to discuss hospital capacity issues amid surging infections.
It is asking the government to implement a four-week lockdown in every public health unit with an infection rate of 40/100,000 population or higher.
A memo sent to provincial hospitals by the CEO of Ontario Health on Tuesday called on facilities in grey and red zones to ensure that up to 15 per cent of staffed adult acute inpatient beds be available for COVID-19 patients.
Institutional outbreaks
One new outbreak has been declared active at a local seniors’ facility while another outbreak at University Hospital has been declared over.
The new outbreak was declared in the 3 East and 3 West areas of Dearness Home, the health unit says. It joins three other active seniors’ facility outbreaks, including at Chelsey Park (2nd floor of long-term care), Country Terrace (Woodcrest area), and McCormick Home (Evergreen Walk).
Elsewhere, for the second day in a row, an outbreak at University Hospital has been declared over.
The outbreak, declared on Nov. 27 in 4TU Multi-Organ Transplant Unit, has been deemed resolved, officials said Thursday. It was tied to an outbreak declared at the hospital on Nov. 10 that later spread to several units, leaving several people dead and dozens sickened.
It comes a day after officials said an outbreak at UH from Dec. 9 in 8IP General Surgery that was not tied to the Nov. 10 outbreak was also deemed resolved.
Outbreaks remain active in at least six areas of University Hospital, declared on:
- Nov. 10 in 4IP General Medicine. (This outbreak later spread to several other units in the hospital. As of Thursday, related outbreaks remained active in 6IP Acute/Decant Medicine, 9IP Sub-Acute Medicine, and 10IP Palliative Care/Sub-Acute Medicine.)
- Dec. 5 in 5IP Cardiology and the sixth-floor cardiology offices.
- Dec. 11 in the 10th Floor Epilepsy Monitoring Unit.
The University Hospital outbreaks have been tied to a total of at least 17 deaths and 153 cases involving 76 patients and 77 staff and health-care workers, LHSC says.
Outbreaks are also active at LHSC’s other hospital, Victoria Hospital. They were declared on:
- Dec. 15 in C5-100 ENT/Burns/Plastics.
- Dec. 16 in C6-400 Acute Medicine.
According to LHSC, the two outbreaks at Victoria Hospital aren’t related to each other, and are tied to fewer than five patient cases and five staff cases. No deaths have been reported as a result.
University Hospital was also the scene of separate outbreaks in 6IP Cardiovascular Surgery (Nov. 27 – Dec. 11), and in 9IP Orthopaedics (Nov. 9 – 27).
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LHSC notes that their facilities remain open, however non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries and procedures remain postponed at University Hospital.
In addition, ambulatory or outpatient activity at University Hospital has been reduced to urgent and emergent appointments, procedures, and diagnostic services.
Since March, the region has seen at least 64 institutional outbreaks in London and Middlesex, including at least 44 at local seniors’ facilities.
Seniors’ facility outbreaks alone have been tied to 125 resident cases, 123 staff cases and 41 deaths. The most recent death linked to a seniors’ facility was reported on Wednesday.
Schools
At least three new school cases were reported in London and Middlesex on Wednesday, according to health unit figures.
One case is located at Catholic Central High School while one is located at West Nissouri Public School.
An additional case has also been reported at OneSchool Global in Mossley, a private religious school. Two cases were reported at the school on Wednesday.
As of Thursday, the health unit says at least 35 cases are currently active at 22 schools in the region. A full list can be found on the health unit’s website under “school and child care.”
At the same time, the health unit says outbreak declarations remain active at six schools: Ashley Oaks Public School, Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School, Sir Arthur Currie Public School, St. Marguerite D’Youville Secondary School, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School and Westminster Secondary School.
The province has told school boards to prepare for the possibility of fully remote learning in the new year.
In a memo Wednesday to school boards, Education Minister Stephen Leccee said staff and students should be encouraged to bring essential learning materials home over the holidays.
He said the precaution will help the education system be ready for “all scenarios.”
The head of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario said the government needs to be clear on what it planned to do.
“I’m not certain why the Minister can’t make this decision now?” Sam Hammond said on Twitter. “Does he think the numbers are going to drop drastically in two weeks?”
In the post-secondary setting, two student residence outbreaks also remain active at Western University. The outbreaks, declared in Perth and Saugeen-Maitland halls, were declared Nov. 21 and Nov. 19, respectively.
- Dec. 4 at Ryerson Public School.
- Dec. 4 at Sir Arthur Currie Public School involving three people.
- Dec. 5 at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School.
- Dec. 6 at C.C. Carrothers Public School.
- Dec. 6 at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School.
- Dec. 6 at Westmount Public School.
Testing
The health unit says at least 115,000 people have been swabbed since April at the city’s two dedicated assessment centres, both of which are continuing to operate, both by appointment only.
As of Thursday, both centres were booked full until at least Monday, according to the online booking system.
“I know they’re all working as hard as they can. Health and human resources are a major challenge right now in terms of the number of people that are required for operations across the health care system,” said Dr. Chris Mackie on Thursday.
“That’s why you’re seeing that crunch there. And unfortunately, the timing isn’t great from the perspective of where we’re at in our case counts right now.”
The Thames Valley Family Health Team, which is operating the centres alongside London Health Sciences Centre, announced holiday hours for the centres this week.
At least 10,435 people were tested for the coronavirus during the week of Dec. 6.
The tally is slightly down from the final tally of 10,767 reported the week prior, but up from the 8,408 reported the week of Nov. 22.
The region’s test per cent positivity rate stood at 2.3 per cent as of the week of Dec. 6, up from 2.2 the week prior, and 1.7 the week before that.
Carling Heights reported an average of 445 visits between Dec. 7 and 11, up from 428 the workweek prior, health unit figures show.
At Oakridge Arena, an average of 329 visits were reported from Dec. 7 to 11, up from 319 visits from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.
Appointment testing for certain asymptomatic people is also continuing at eight local pharmacies.
Ontario
Ontario is reporting a single-day record of 2,432 new cases of COVID-19 today, and 23 new deaths due to the virus.
Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 737 new cases in Toronto, 434 in Peel Region, 209 in York Region, 190 in Windsor-Essex, and 142 in Hamilton.
In the province’s long-term care homes, 819 residents currently have COVID-19 and 13 new deaths have been reported Thursday.
The province says 140 of its 626 long-term care homes are experiencing an outbreak.
It also reported 170 new COVID-19 cases related to schools, including at least 143 among students.
Those bring the number of schools with a reported case to 955 out of Ontario’s 4,828 publicly funded schools.
— With files from The Canadian Press
Elgin and Oxford
One death and a record 33 new cases have been reported in Elgin-Oxford, officials with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported on Thursday.
The jump brings the region’s total case count to 833, of which 673 people have recovered, 11 more than the day before.
At least 11 deaths have been reported during the pandemic, five just this month. Health officials said Thursday’s death involved a man in his 70s from Elgin County.
At least 10 of Thursday’s cases were reported in St. Thomas, while seven were reported in Aylmer, five each in Tillsonburg and Woodstock, and three in Blandford-Blenheim.
At least 149 cases are currently active in the region. Of those, at least 32 are in St. Thomas, 22 in Aylmer, 21 in Norwich Township, 15 in Bayham, 14 in Tillsonburg, 13 in Woodstock, and 11 in Blandford-Blenheim.
The region saw 19 cases and 19 recoveries on Wednesday; one death, 15 cases and 28 recoveries on Tuesday; and the previous record 31 cases on Monday.
Elgin and Oxford remains in the orange-restrict tier of the province’s restrictions framework.
Several new school cases have been reported by the Thames Valley District School Board.
Board officials say one case each was reported at Davenport Public School in Aylmer, Huron Park Secondary School in Woodstock and Tavistock Public School.
No school cases were marked as resolved.
At least 16 school cases remain active, including:
- Three cases at East Elgin Secondary School in Aylmer.
- Two cases at Elgin Court Public School in St. Thomas.
- Two cases at Davenport Public School in Aylmer.
- Two cases at Huron Park Secondary School in Woodstock.
- One case at New Sarum Public School in St. Thomas.
- One case at Parkside Collegiate Institute in St. Thomas.
- One case at South Ridge Public School in Tillsonburg.
- One case at St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Woodstock.
- One case at Summers’ Corners Public School in Aylmer.
- One case at Tavistock Public School.
- One case at Westfield Public School in Tillsonburg.
The region has seen at least 36 school cases reported since the start of September.
A new institutional outbreak has been declared in the region, according to the health unit.
The outbreak, declared late Wednesday, is located at PeopleCare Tavistock and is tied to at least two staff cases.
Few other details have been released.
It’s among five institutional outbreaks that are currently active in the region.
One outbreak, declared on Dec. 13, is located at Woodingford Lodge in Tillsonburg. One staff case is reported.
Elsewhere, an outbreak is active at Maple Manor Nursing Home as of Dec. 12 due to one resident case and one staff case, while Bethany Care Home in Norwich had an outbreak declared Dec. 10 after two staff cases.
An outbreak declared Dec. 5 at Terrace Lodge also remains active, linked to one staff case.
At least 14 institutional outbreaks have been declared at 12 facilities since March.
By location, Aylmer remains the hardest-hit municipality in the region, both by total number of cases and by number of cases per 100,000 people.
At least 163 cases have been reported in the town so far, resulting in an incidence rate of 2,175 cases per 100,000 people.
In comparison, Woodstock, which has the second-highest case total – 158 – has an incidence rate of 386.3.
Elsewhere, 120 cases have been reported in St. Thomas, 103 in Bayham, 73 in Norwich, 67 in Tillsonburg, 39 in Ingersoll, 25 in Blandford-Blenheim, 22 in East Zorra-Tavistock, 15 in Zorra, 12 in South-West Oxford and 11 each in Central Elgin and Dutton/Dunwich.
Three other municipalities have recorded case totals under 10.
The region had a test per cent positivity rate of 2.4 per cent as of the week of Dec. 6, up from 1.8 the week before and 1.3 the week before that. At least 4,800 people were tested the week of Dec. 6, roughly the same as the week before.
Huron and Perth
Eighteen people have tested positive for the coronavirus, while another five have recovered, Huron Perth Public Health reported.
The update brings the region’s case total to 499 – an increase of only 17 from the day before. The health unit says one previously confirmed case had been reassigned to a different health unit.
Of the region’s cases, 408 people have recovered. Twenty deaths have been reported, most recently on Thursday of last week involving a resident of Cedarcroft Place in Stratford.
According to the health unit, seven of Thursday’s cases are from North Perth, while four are from Perth East. Three cases are from Howick, while one each are from Morris Turnberry, South Huron, Perth South and West Perth.
There are currently 71 active cases in the region. At least five people are in hospital, according to the health unit.
As of this week, the region remains in the orange-restrict tier of the province’s COVID-19 framework.
An outbreak declared on Tuesday at Listowel Memorial Hospital continues to worsen, according to the Listowel and Wingham Hospitals Alliance.
The group says the outbreak is now linked to 10 cases at the hospital, including three patients and seven staff members.
The hospital’s medicine unit has been closed to admissions as a result. Anyone who would have been sent there will go to the facility’s complex care unit or to neighbouring hospitals.
The hospital’s emergency department, ambulatory services, operating rooms and other services remain open.
Elsewhere, an outbreak at Stratford General Hospital remains active, linked to seven cases, a tally that has not changed in at least a week. The outbreak was declared in its medicine unit on Dec. 3.
An outbreak is also still active at Cedarcroft Place in Stratford, linked to 50 resident cases and 24 staff cases, tallies that have not changed in more than a week.
At least 12 resident deaths have also been attributed to the outbreak, which was declared active on Oct. 27.
No new school cases were reported by either the Avon-Maitland District School Board or the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board.
In addition, the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board said all six of the cases that had been active at St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Listowel had been resolved, resulting in no active cases at its schools.
An outbreak declaration remains active at the Listowel school, however.
At least eight cases are currently active at schools in the region:
- Five cases at Listowel District Secondary School.
- One case at F. E. Madill Secondary School in Wingham.
- One case at Mornington Central Public School.
- One case at North Perth Westfield Elementary School.
At least 29 school cases have been reported in the region since Sept. 1.
At least 219 cases have been in Perth County — with at least 101 in North Perth and 95 in Perth East — while 167 cases and at least 16 deaths have been in Stratford.
Elsewhere, 105 cases have been in Huron County, while eight cases and at least one death have been in St. Marys.
Locations for the region’s three other reported deaths were not immediately available.
As of the week of Dec. 6, the region’s test per cent positivity rate was 1.2 per cent, down from 1.6 the week before.
Sarnia and Lambton
Ten people have tested positive for the coronavirus, while another three have recovered, Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported.
The region’s total case tally stands at 470, of which 409 people have recovered and 27 have died. The most recent death was reported on Wednesday.
Thirty-four cases are known to be active in the county, according to the health unit. Where they are located is unknown as the health unit has refused to release that information.
Bluewater Health reported that at least four people were in hospital, one more than the day before. At least 64 people have been admitted to hospital during the pandemic.
The region remains in the yellow-protect tier of the province’s restrictions framework.
Two new workplace outbreaks have been declared, according to the health unit.
Both of the outbreaks were declared active on Wednesday, with one tied to two cases and the other tied to three.
They join two other active workplace outbreaks in the city, declared Dec. 3 involving two cases, and Dec. 11 involving four cases.
The health unit has not provided any information regarding the names of the workplaces, where the workplaces are located or what kinds of workplaces they are.
A total of 17 outbreaks have been declared since March — 10 at seniors’ facilities, six at workplaces and one at Bluewater Health — linked to 126 cases and 16 deaths.
No new school cases were reported by the local school boards.
There is one active school case in the county, located at St. Patrick’s Catholic High School.
At least 12 school cases have been reported in the county since the start of the school year.
According to the health unit’s broad case map, at least 28,600 cases have been reported in Central Sarnia and Point Edward, while 27,650 have been reported in a region encompassing Petrolia, Enniskillen, Brooke-Alvinston, Oil Springs, Dawn-Euphemia and St. Clair.
Elsewhere, 24,486 have been reported in South Sarnia, 23,129 in North Sarnia and Bright’s Grove, and 21,181 in a region encompassing Lambton Shores, Plympton-Wyoming, Warwick, and Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.
As of the week of Dec. 6, the region had a weekly test per cent positivity rate of 0.86 per cent, up from 0.64 the week before.
–– With files from The Canadian Press
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