Jump to: Hospitalizations – Outbreaks – Schools – Vaccinations and Testing – Ontario – Elgin and Oxford – Huron and Perth – Sarnia and Lambton

One person has died and 39 others have tested positive for the coronavirus in London and Middlesex, local health officials said Wednesday.

The region’s pandemic case tally now stands at 5,527, of which 3,764 people have recovered, an increase of 17 from the day before.

The health unit says at least 193 people have died. Of those, 67 deaths have occurred since Jan. 1. There have been 27 days in a row this month where at least one death was reported.

The death reported Wednesday involved a woman in her 80s who was associated with a long-term care home. No other information has been released.

More than 2,114 cases have been reported since the beginning of this month, the most of any month during the pandemic.

At least 1,590 cases were active in the region as of Wednesday.

Details about the new cases, including location, age group and exposure source, were not immediately available.

The health unit is in the midst of upgrading its online COVID-19 dashboard, meaning only very limited information — the number of new cases, recoveries and deaths — is available.

The health unit says the process is expected to be completed Friday, and says the new system will also allow officials to provide virtual notifications to those diagnosed with COVID-19.

Health officials may provide more information during a media briefing set to take place Wednesday afternoon.

The region’s seven-day case average stands at 41.42 as of Wednesday, down from 48.14 on Tuesday. The 14-day average sits at 57.78.

Hospitalizations

The number of COVID-19 inpatients in the care of London Health Sciences Centre fell by two to 17 as of Wednesday, the organization reported.

Four are in critical or intensive care, a drop of one from the day before.

Active staff cases within LHSC remain unchanged at 16.

St. Joseph’s Health Care London reported that no COVID-19 patients were in the care of St. Joseph’s Hospital as of Wednesday.

Six staff cases remain active within SJHCL. Five are linked to an outbreak at Mount Hope.

At least 334 people have had to be hospitalized for COVID-19 during the pandemic, including 66 who have needed intensive care.

Earlier this week, officials with LHSC said the organization would see operating room capacity ramped up again on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, 13 and a half of 15 operating rooms at University Hospital and 17 of 19 operating rooms at Victoria Hospital are running.

Institutional outbreaks

No new outbreaks have been declared or deemed resolved, according to the health unit’s outbreak status report, issued late Tuesday night.

London Health Sciences Centre, however, has reported that an outbreak in its University Hospital emergency department remains active as of Wednesday, linked to 10 staff cases, one more than the day before.

A non-institutional outbreak is also still active at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, connected to at least 19 inmate cases and 13 staff cases — three staff cases more than the day before.

As of late Tuesday, 12 institutional outbreaks were active in London and Middlesex, with 10 at long-term care and retirement homes.

The region also had a second hospital outbr39eak active as of Tuesday, located at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital in 2 South.

Local health officials have asked the provincial lab to examine positive samples from some quick-spreading local outbreaks to see whether the U.K. variant may be connected.

Since March, the region has seen at least 92 institutional outbreaks in London and Middlesex, including 66 at local seniors’ facilities.

Seniors’ facilities alone had been linked to at least 340 resident cases and 362 staff cases as of Tuesday. At least 95 have died.

A group of more than 200 doctors, researchers and advocates said Tuesday that Ontario must take urgent action to address the rising number of deaths due to COVID-19 in long-term care.

In a letter, the group says the situation constitutes a humanitarian crisis, and says the province’s nursing homes are still seeing staffing shortages, poor infection control and a delayed response to outbreaks.

The group is recommending the province bolster staffing immediately, legislate a minimum standard of daily care for residents and provide unrestricted access to family caregivers with personal protective equipment.

Schools

No new school cases have been reported by local school boards.

As of Wednesday, one case is active. It was reported at Chippewa Public School on Sunday.

At least 181 school and child-care centre cases have been reported since the pandemic began.

Health officials say at least 181 cases have been reported during the pandemic involving schools and child-care centres.

A vast majority of local students won’t be back in the classroom until at least Feb. 11.

Vaccinations and testing

An update on the local vaccination campaign is expected during a media briefing on Wednesday.

On Monday, health officials said all high-risk retirement home residents would receive their initial vaccinations by the end of Wednesday.

“After that, we’ll take about a week and a half pause as we acquire additional vaccine supplies for second doses,” said Dr. Chris Mackie earlier this week.

All eligible long-term care home residents received initial doses of the vaccine as of Sunday. Mackie says health unit teams will be going back in “about two or three weeks” for second doses at those homes.

Just over 6,000 long-term care and retirement home residents will have been vaccinated by the end of Wednesday, in addition to the 10,000 or so staff who were vaccinated at the Agriplex, Mackie said.

Ontario said it expects 26,325 Pfizer-BioNTech doses next week, which is far less than the amount originally expected. The federal government has not provided Ontario with an update on expected vaccine deliveries on Feb. 8 or Feb. 15, the province said.

Due to the health unit’s dashboard upgrades, no updated information is available regarding visitation numbers at the city’s two assessment centres. Both are continuing to operate by appointment only.

At least 3.6 per cent of tests were coming back positive as of the week of Jan. 10, down from 6.1 per cent the week prior. Updated numbers were expected Wednesday, but with the dashboard updates, it’s unclear whether new test positivity data will be released this week.

At least 12,103 tests were conducted the week of Jan. 10, down from 12,901 a week earlier.

Ontario

Ontario reported 1,670 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 49 more deaths linked to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said there were 450 new cases in Toronto, 342 in Peel Region and 171 in York Region.

She said nearly 55,200 tests have been completed since the last daily update.

Ontario also reported that 9,513 more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine had been administered since Tuesday’s update. A total of 305,330 doses have been given in the province so far.

There have been 260,370 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario since the pandemic began and 5,958 people have died from the virus.

Ontario’s labour minister says the province is ramping up COVID-19 safety inspections on farms ahead of the new growing season.

Monte McNaughton says hundreds of inspectors will visit farms to ensure COVID-19 safety measures are being followed to protect temporary foreign workers arriving in the coming weeks.

The province says there were approximately 20,500 temporary foreign workers in Ontario last year and most resided in communal living quarters on farms.

McNaughton says inspections of these living quarters are the duty of the federal government.

The province says that more than 1,780 temporary foreign workers in Ontario tested positive for COVID-19 in 2020, and three died of the virus.

McNaughton could not say if Ontario will provide the COVID-19 vaccine to temporary foreign workers.

Elgin and Oxford

Six people have tested positive for the coronavirus, while another 52 have recovered, Southwestern Public Health reported Wednesday.

The update brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 2,240, of which 2,001 people have recovered and 55 have died. The most recent death was reported on Tuesday.

Forty-one deaths have been reported just this month, along with 861 cases.

As of Wednesday, 184 cases were known to be active in the region. Of those, 39 are in Tillsonburg, 37 are in Woodstock, 25 are in St. Thomas, and 23 each in Aylmer and Norwich. Nine other municipalities have fewer than 12 active cases.

No new institutional outbreaks have been declared and no previous outbreaks have been deemed resolved.

Twelve remain in place in Elgin and Oxford, including the region’s oldest and most severe outbreak at Maple Manor Nursing Home.

At least 24 institutional outbreaks have been declared in the region during the pandemic.

The active outbreaks were declared on:

• Jan. 21 at Caressant Care Retirement Home in Woodstock (19 resident, three staff cases)
• Jan. 21 at Elgin Manor in St. Thomas (one staff case)
• Jan. 18 at Harvest Crossing Retirement Home in Tillsonburg (one staff case)
• Jan. 16 at Chartwell Oxford Gardens (one staff case)
• Jan. 16 at Seasons Retirement Home in St. Thomas (one staff case)
• Jan. 15 at Dayspring Residence in Tillsonburg (one resident case)
• Jan. 6 at Trillium Retirement Home (13 resident, five staff cases)
• Jan. 4 at Caressant Care Bonnie Place – St. Thomas (two resident cases and one death)
• Jan. 1 at Woodingford Lodge – Woodstock (two resident, two staff cases)
• Dec. 19 at Terrace Lodge in Aylmer (six staff cases)
• Dec. 16 at PeopleCare Tavistock (47 resident, 36 staff cases, nine deaths)
• Dec. 12 at Maple Manor Nursing Home (85 resident, 52 staff cases, 20 deaths)

Meantime, no new school cases were reported in the region by the Thames Valley District School Board or the London District Catholic School Board. No cases are active.

St. Thomas has reported 388 cases during the pandemic, followed by Woodstock with 382 and Aylmer with 355.

Elsewhere, 320 cases have been in Tillsonburg, 194 in Norwich, 159 in Bayham, 99 in East Zorra-Tavistock, 91 in Ingersoll, 51 in Zorra, 45 in South-West Oxford, 44 in Blandford-Blenheim, 43 in Central Elgin, 24 in Southwold, 20 in West Elgin, 16 in Dutton/Dunwich and eight in Malahide.

The region’s test positivity rate fell the week of Jan. 17 to 2.4 per cent, down from 3.2 the week prior and 5.9 the week before that.

Health officials say 5,239 tests were conducted the week of Jan. 10, down slightly from the roughly 5,711 done the week before.

Huron and Perth

Two people have died while six others have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials with Huron Perth Public Health reported on Wednesday.

The region’s pandemic case tally stands at 1,181, of which 1,030 people have recovered, an increase of 13 from the day before.

The two deaths reported Wednesday both involved people linked to an outbreak at Caressant Care Nursing Home in North Perth, which has now claimed the lives of 11 people.

Health officials said all six of Wednesday’s new cases are from Huron County, with four from Huron East (all linked to an outbreak at Seaforth Manor) and one each from Bluewater and Central Huron.

The update leaves 113 active cases in Huron-Perth. Of those, 47 are in North Perth, 35 are in Huron East, and 11 are in Stratford. Six other municipalities have active case counts under 10.

At least five people are currently in hospital.

Wednesday’s low case jump comes after an even lower increase on Tuesday, when just two cases were reported.

“In December and January, we have had other weeks that started with small numbers, then quickly escalated to higher numbers,” said a spokesperson for the health unit.

“We need to see several days of low case counts before a trend can accurately be determined.”

The spokesperson also noted that the health unit is not aware of any delays in testing or receiving results that may be to blame for the lower case tally on Tuesday.

Only two long-term care outbreaks and one retirement home outbreak remain active as of Wednesday.

The active outbreaks were declared on:

• Jan. 17 at Seaforth Manor in Huron East (27 resident, seven staff cases; one and three cases more, respectively, than the day before)
• Jan. 10 at Caressant Care Nursing Home in North Perth (43 resident, 26 staff cases, 11 deaths; two more than the day before)
• Jan. 7 at Caressant Care Retirement Home in North Perth (30 resident, nine staff cases, one death; one staff case more than the day before).

The health unit says an outbreak also remains active at Stratford General Hospital in the facility’s surgery unit. On Monday, officials said they hoped to declare the outbreak, tied to four staff cases, over soon.

No new school cases have been reported either. Two have been declared resolved, both at South Huron District High School.

Ten school cases remain listed as active by the Avon-Maitland District School Board, located at:

• Clinton Public School (two cases)
• Listowel District Secondary School (two cases)
• North Perth Westfield Elementary School (two cases)
• St. Marys District Collegiate and Vocational Institute
• Stratford District Secondary School
• Stratford Intermediate School (two cases)

No cases were listed as active by the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board.

At least 512 cases have been reported in Perth County during the pandemic, including 326 in North Perth, while 359 have been reported in Huron County.

Elsewhere, 282 cases have been in Stratford, and 28 in St. Marys.

According to the health unit, the region’s test positivity rate was 3.1 per cent as of the week of Jan. 10, down from 3.3 per cent a week earlier. Updated stats were expected Wednesday.

At least 3,949 people were tested that week, down from 4,126 a week earlier.

Sarnia and Lambton

Two new cases and 28 recoveries were reported Wednesday by officials with Lambton Public Health.

The increase is the smallest the region has seen since mid-December and comes amid a notable decline in new cases in the county over the last week.

It brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 1,790, of which 1,657 people have recovered and 36 have died. The most recent death was reported on Tuesday involving a person in their 90s who died in hospital on Monday.

At least 97 cases are active in the region, the health unit says. At least eight people were in hospital as of Wednesday, Bluewater Health reported.

At least 943 cases have been reported in Lambton since Jan. 1. A total of 847 were reported through all of 2020.

The region’s coronavirus immunization program kicked off Tuesday, a day after the first 500 doses of Moderna vaccine arrived in the county.

The program got underway at Trillium Villa Nursing Home in Sarnia, where resident Valerie Verberg, 88, was the first person to receive a shot.

“I feel great. I can’t believe I was the first one!” Verberg said, according to health officials.

The health unit says immunizations will continue this week until all currently available doses of Moderna vaccine have been used. A small additional shipment is expected to arrive the first week of February.

No new outbreaks have been declared and none have been resolved.

A total of eight outbreaks are active in the county. Four are at seniors’ facilities, two are at workplaces, one is at Bluewater Health hospital in Sarnia and one is at Sarnia’s jail.

The long-term care and retirement home outbreaks are as follows, declared on:

• Jan. 13 at Vision Rest Home (30 resident, seven staff cases; one case each more than the day before)
• Jan. 11 at Landmark Village in Sarnia (two staff cases)
• Jan. 8 at Twin Lakes Terrace (LTC) in Sarnia (17 resident, five staff cases, one death)
• Dec. 30 at Village on the St. Clair in Sarnia (27 resident, 12 staff cases, three deaths)

The hospital outbreak, meantime, is tied to two patient and six staff cases, while the outbreak at Sarnia’s jail is tied to four staff cases — both figures unchanged from the day before.

The two workplace outbreaks, declared Jan. 16 and 20, are linked to 13 cases.

No information has been released relating to possible new school cases.

The health unit does not report school cases, and the Lambton Kent District and St. Clair Catholic District school boards have paused public reporting while students are in remote learning.

New figures released Wednesday by the health unit show the county’s test per cent positivity rate fell to 2.3 per cent as of the week of Jan. 17 to 23, down from 4.5 the week before and 6.2 the week before that.

At least 4,231 people were tested the week of Jan. 17, compared to a total of 5,027 a week earlier.

— With files from The Canadian Press