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Nineteen people have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit reported on Thursday.

It marks just the third time since Dec. 4, two months ago Thursday, that the region has reported fewer than 20 new cases in one day.

It brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 5,779, of which 3,849 people have recovered, 18 more than the day before.

At least 176 deaths have been reported, most recently on Wednesday involving a man in his 80s who was associated with a long-term care home.

Of the 19 new cases Thursday, all but two of them are from London. One is from Middlesex Centre and one is from Strathroy-Caradoc.

Health unit data shows roughly half of those infected are under the age of 40. One individual is 19 or younger, five are in their 20s, four are in their 30s, three are in their 40s, two are in their 50s, one each are in their 60s and 70s, and two are 80 or older.

Eight of the cases have pending exposure source data, while seven are due to close contact, and three to an outbreak. One has no known link.

Despite the recent downward trend in new cases, health officials warn that cases could spike again if people fail to follow pandemic measures, especially as concerns mount over more contagious variants.

The region has seen at least four cases of the coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, first detected in the U.K., as of Wednesday, unchanged from the day before, according to the most recent epidemiologic report from Public Health Ontario.

No cases of the variant B.1.351, first detected in South Africa, have been confirmed in London and Middlesex as of Wednesday.

During Thursday’s media briefing, London Mayor Ed Holder advised those planning on getting together for the Super Bowl to think twice.

“The desire to maintain your annual tradition shouldn’t supersede your desire to save lives, keep our kids in school and hopefully get countless numbers of small businesses up and running again across our broad community,” he said.

“We’ve seen how quickly a single outbreak can quickly expand and multiply from household to household and workplace to workplace. After all the sacrifices made to get the virus back under control, especially recently, it would be so disappointing to see it all undone because of someone’s Super Bowl party.”

The region’s seven-day case average stood at 30.0 on Thursday, down from 33.14 on Wednesday. The 14-day average is 33.78, down from 36.57.

At least 5,014 cases have been reported in London during the pandemic, followed by 241 in Middlesex Centre.

Elsewhere, Strathroy-Caradoc has reported 194 cases; Thames Centre, 97; Lucan Biddulph, 49; Southwest Middlesex, 36; North Middlesex, 28; Adelaide Metcalfe, 13; and Newbury, two. At least 105 cases are pending location data.

People under the age of 40 have accounted for roughly 54 per cent of the region’s overall caseload. People in their 20s account for 23 per cent.

Hospitalizations

The number of COVID-19 inpatients in the care of London Health Sciences Centre stood at 16 as of Thursday, a decline of one from the day before.

At the same time, the number of patients in intensive or critical care also fell by one to eight, while active staff cases fell by two to 11.

At St. Joseph’s Health Care London (SJHCL), no COVID-19 patients were listed as being in the care of St. Joseph’s Hospital as of Tuesday, its most recent update.

Three staff cases were listed as active within SJHCL, all linked to a since-resolved outbreak at Mount Hope. One patient case is active at Parkwood’s Mental Health Care Building.

At least 343 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 in the region, including 66 who have needed to be admitted to an intensive care unit.

Institutional outbreaks

One new outbreak has been declared in the London and Middlesex region and one has resolved.

The outbreak, declared Wednesday, involves Westmount Gardens and its Lily and Daisy units. No other information has been released.

Meantime, an outbreak at University Hospital in the emergency department has resolved, according to LHSC. It was linked to at least 10 staff cases.

Seven institutional outbreaks remain active in the region, all at seniors’ facilities.

Since March 2020, the region has seen at least 95 institutional outbreaks in London and Middlesex, including 69 at local seniors’ facilities.

An outbreak is also still active at the city’s jail.

The outbreak at Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, declared on Jan. 18, has been linked to cases involving at least 22 inmates and 21 staff members as of Thursday, according to the health unit.

Provincial data shows at least four inmates have since recovered. Similar information regarding staff was not immediately available.

“We’re in touch with the EMDC facility every day. We are speaking with the staff, we’re screening to make sure that the protocols are being followed,” Dr. Chris Mackie, the region’s medical officer of health said Thursday.

Mackie said the “bread and butter” infection prevention and control measures in place — masking, cohorting, staff screening, enhanced cleaning — are going well at the jail.

“The one that remains difficult is giving people space to keep their distance. It isn’t an opulent facility, frankly, so that that remains difficult there.”

Schools

No new school cases have been reported.

One remains active in the region, located at Kensal Park French Immersion Public School, first reported late Tuesday.

As of Thursday, high schools in the London-Middlesex region can reopen for in-person learning.

Elementary schools returned on Monday.

On Wednesday, the province announced that students in 13 health units, including Huron-Perth and Lambton, will begin returning to class starting Monday.

Toronto, Peel Region and York Region will return Feb. 16.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the province has added a number of safety measures, including asymptomatic testing and enhanced screening for secondary students and staff.

The government has also allocated $341 million in federal funding to school boards that will go towards measures that include hiring more cleaning staff, buying personal protective equipment and enhancing air filtration.

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The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, the province’s largest teachers’ union, said Wednesday that adequate safety measures must be in place to prevent future school closures, with President Sam Hammond calling on the province to take “urgent action” to fund additional measures and give school boards time to implement them.

NDP education critic Marit Stiles said while the Opposition wants to sees schools reopen, the government has not demonstrated how it will make them safe. The province needs to cap class sizes at 15 students, create a comprehensive in-school testing regime and improve ventilation, she said.

Vaccinations and testing

The region’s second COVID-19 vaccination clinic will be located at the Caradoc Community Centre in Mount Brydges, local health and municipal officials announced Thursday.

In a joint statement, the health unit, Middlesex County, Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, Middlesex Hospital Alliance and the Municipality of Strathroy-Caradoc, said the new clinic would become operational in the coming weeks as more vaccine is made available in the region.

“The Health Unit has been working closely with Strathroy-Caradoc administration to ensure all necessary measures are being put in place to ensure the facility will be ready to support the vaccination operations that will happen there, once additional supply becomes available,” the statement read.

“Work currently being done at the Caradoc Community Centre includes implementing the necessary security measures and upgrading the building’s technological infrastructure.”

During Thursday’s media briefing, Cathy Burghardt-Jesson, warden for Middlesex County, said that while the opening of the second clinic won’t solve everything, providing easier access to the vaccine in the county was an important step in protecting Middlesex residents and communities.

“It’s an integral part of getting to the end of the field, and that is where we are today, and it is what we have to do every day. We have to look ahead, and little by little, we are getting closer to that touchdown,” Burghardt-Jesson said, giving a nod to the upcoming Super Bowl.

Strathroy-Caradoc’s mayor, Joanne Vanderheyden, said she believed the community centre was an optimal location for the new clinic.

“It’s easy access, it’s fully accessible, it meets all the set up criteria. I think it’s a great spot for Middlesex County to move forward with,” she told the briefing.

The news comes a day after the health unit announced that the region’s first clinic, located at the Western Fair District Agriplex, would reopen Monday after being closed since Jan. 22.

A draft vaccination plan issued by the health unit late last month showed officials plan to open a total of four vaccination clinics in the region.

Details on possible locations for the other two sites have not been released. Combined, the four clinics aim to vaccinate as many as 3,000 people per day.

The clinics, the health unit says, will play a crucial role during Phase 1 of the province’s three-phase vaccine rollout framework.

Health unit teams began visiting long-term care and high-risk retirement homes this week to provide residents with their follow-up doses.

Mackie said the London-Middlesex region is expected to receive doses of the Pfizer vaccine, noting that some other communities have seen a mix of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“You can imagine that logistically that’s a major challenge that we’re hoping to avoid,” he said.

The large amount of doses expected later this month are doses that would have been delivered early this month or later last month, had Pfizer not embarked on upgrades at its Belgium facility that resulted in major supply issues.

Earlier this week, the province said it was expecting 80 per cent fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine over the first two weeks of this month before returning to near-previously expected levels Feb. 15.

The region’s test per cent positivity rate fell to 2.2 per cent the week of Jan. 24 from 2.6 the week prior, figures released Wednesday show.

Roughly 10,246 people were tested that week, down from 11,455 the week before.

Ontario

Ontario is reporting 1,563 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 88 more deaths linked to the virus.

Public health officials have noted, however, that updates to a provincial database are causing data fluctuations in this week’s case counts.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 584 new cases in Toronto, 265 in Peel and 132 in York Region.

Ontario is also reporting that nearly 64,500 tests have been completed since the last daily update.

Another 6,724 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered since Wednesday’s report.

A total of 355,055 doses of a vaccine have been administered in the province so far.

There have been 273,660 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario since the pandemic began; 250,937 of those have been resolved and 6,393 people have died from the virus.

Elgin and Oxford

Two people have died and 11 others have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials with Southwestern Public Health reported on Thursday.

It brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 2,336, of which 2,141 have recovered, an increase of 17 from the day before.

At least 61 people have died. The two deaths reported Thursday involved a man in his 70s from Oxford, and a woman in her 80s from Oxford whose death was linked to an outbreak at Caressant Care Retirement Home in Woodstock.

There are at least 134 active cases in the region as of Thursday. At least 61 of them are in Woodstock, followed by 16 in Norwich, 15 in Aylmer, and 11 in Ingersoll. Ten other municipalities have fewer than 10 active cases.

At least eight people were in hospital as of Thursday, with one in intensive care.

During a media briefing Wednesday, Dr. Joyce Lock, the region’s medical officer of health, noted that the region’s vaccination campaign has been proceeding well, with all first dose vaccinations for high-risk retirement home residents being administered as of Jan. 29.

“More than 170 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered over four days,” Lock said. When additional shipments of the vaccine come later in the month, second doses will begin for long-term care and retirement home residents.

“It looks like we will get sufficient allocations to ensure that everyone who got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, either in our long-term care homes or retirement homes or some of our health care workers, will be able to get their second dose within the 42 day time frame.”

No new outbreaks have been declared and none have been deemed resolved by the health unit.

Eight are currently active in the region, declared on

• Feb. 2 at Trillium Retirement Home in Norwich (one resident case)
• Jan. 28 at Extendicare in Port Stanley (one staff case)
• Jan. 24 at Arches Transitional Bed Program in Woodstock (one staff case)
• Jan. 21 at Caressant Care Retirement Home in Woodstock (40 resident, 11 staff cases, one death; one staff case and one death more than the day before)
• Jan. 15 at Dayspring Residence in Tillsonburg (one resident case)
• Jan. 1 at Woodingford Lodge – Woodstock (two resident, two staff cases)
• Dec. 16 at PeopleCare Tavistock (47 resident, 38 staff cases, 10 deaths)
• Dec. 12 at Maple Manor Nursing Home (85 resident, 52 staff cases; 20 deaths)

As of Wednesday, 15 resident cases and five staff cases remained active at Maple Manor, according to Lock. The outbreak has been the most severe and deadly the region has seen during the pandemic.

Meantime, no new school cases were reported.

One remains active in the Elgin-Oxford region, located at Central Public School in Woodstock.

Elementary schools within Southwestern Public Health were allowed to return to in-person learning on Monday, and high schools on Thursday.

The health unit says a total of 429 cases have been reported in Woodstock during the pandemic, while 404 have been in St. Thomas, 359 in Aylmer and 320 in Tillsonburg.

Elsewhere, 197 cases have been in Norwich, 161 in Bayham, 102 in Ingersoll, 101 in East Zorra-Tavistock, 53 in Zorra, 47 in Blandford-Blenheim, 46 in South-West Oxford, 44 in Central Elgin, 24 in Southwold, 21 in West Elgin, 19 in Dutton/Dunwich and eight in Malahide.

The region’s test positivity rate stood at 1.4 per cent as of the week of Jan. 24, health unit figures released Wednesday show.

It’s a drop from the 2.4 per cent reported the week before.

At least 4,946 people were tested the week of Jan. 24, down from 5,331 a week earlier.

Huron and Perth

Two people have died and 10 others have tested positive for the coronavirus in Huron-Perth, local health officials said.

It brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 1,244, of which 1,125 have recovered, an increase of five from the day before.

At least 44 people have died during the pandemic.

Of the 10 new cases, three are from North Perth, two each are from Central Huron, Goderich, and St. Marys, and one is from West Perth.

With Thursday’s update, it leaves at least 75 active cases in the region. Sixty-one percent, or 46, are in Huron East, while eight are in North Perth and six are in Goderich. Eight other municipalities have fewer than five active cases.

At least one person is currently in hospital.

An outbreak has been declared at St. Marys Memorial Hospital, the health unit says.

The outbreak, declared Jan. 31 but only recently reported, is linked to at least one case involving a patient and five involving staff.

It’s the fourth outbreak to be declared at a regional hospital during the pandemic.

Elsewhere, a new outbreak was also declared at a long-term care facility in Perth East.

The outbreak, declared Wednesday at Hillside Manor, is linked to one staff case.

At least seven outbreaks are currently active in the region, with six at long-term care and retirement homes. The outbreaks were declared on:

• Feb. 3 at Hillside Manor in Perth East (one staff case)
• Jan. 31 at St Marys Memorial Hospital (one patient, five staff cases)
• Jan. 31 at Seaforth Manor Retirement Home in Huron East (five resident cases)
• Jan. 30 at Fordwich Village in Howick (one staff case)
• Jan. 17 at Seaforth Manor Nursing Home in Huron East (41 resident, 16 staff cases, at least five deaths. The 63-bed facility had 27 active resident cases and 13 active staff cases as of Wednesday, according to provincial data)
• Jan. 10 at Caressant Care Nursing Home in North Perth (43 resident, 27 staff cases, 13 deaths. The facility has 52 beds. Provincial data showed no active resident cases and fewer than five active staff cases as of Wednesday)
• Jan. 7 at Caressant Care Retirement Home in North Perth (30 resident, 10 staff cases, one death)

One new school case has been reported in the region, located at Listowel District Secondary School. The case was deemed “non-school exposure” by the health unit.

It’s among five active cases in the region, all under the Avon-Maitland District School Board.

Two each are located at Listowel District Secondary School and North Perth Westfield Elementary School, while one is at Elma Township Public School.

No cases are active under the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board.

At least 525 cases have been reported in Perth County during the pandemic, including 337 in North Perth 132 in Perth East, 29 in Perth South and 27 in West Perth.

Elsewhere, 402 cases have been reported in Huron County, including 90 in South Huron, 82 in Huron East, 49 in Central Huron, 40 in Morris Turnberry, 38 in North Huron, 34 in Howick, 32 in Bluewater, 21 in ACW and 16 in Goderich.

At least 287 cases have been reported in Stratford, and 30 in St. Marys.

The region’s test per cent positivity rate fell to 1.6 per cent the week of Jan. 24 from 3.3 per cent a week earlier, figures released Wednesday show.

Roughly 3,311 people were tested the week of the 24th down from 3,689 the week prior.

Sarnia and Lambton

Three people have died and four others have tested positive for the coronavirus, officials with Lambton Public Health reported Thursday.

It brings the region’s pandemic case tally to 1,852, of which 1,756 have recovered and 41 have died.

The three deaths reported on Thursday involved two people aged 80 or older who died in hospital. The third individual was aged 90 or older, the health unit said.

With the update, at least 55 cases are listed as active in the county. At least eight people were in hospital at Bluewater Health, the organization reported on Thursday.

Health officials provided an update on the local vaccination campaign Wednesday, including plans to open immunization clinics throughout the county.

Planned locations include Point Edward Arena/Optimist Club Community Hall, the Wyoming Fairgrounds, and Forest Kimball Hall.

Officials say the health unit is also working to pilot a drive-up option in Sarnia, and is exploring the possibility of opening temporary mobile sites in Brooke-Alvinston, Oil Springs, and St. Clair Twp.

“Lambton Public Health expects a small shipment of additional vaccines to arrive this week,” the health unit said in a statement.

“As such, further immunizations will be administered to the remaining Phase 1 long-term care and high risk retirement home residents, staff and First Nations Elder Care facilities beginning next week.”

Five long-term care and high-risk retirement homes were among those who got initial doses from the first shipment the week of Jan. 25.

One workplace outbreak has been declared over. The outbreak was declared Jan. 20 and was linked to five cases. The name and location of the workplace was not released.

Elsewhere, six outbreaks remain active in the region, including four at seniors’ facilities, one at Bluewater Health, and one at an unnamed workplace.

The seniors’ facility outbreaks were declared on:

• Jan. 28 at Lambton Meadowview Villa in Petrolia (one staff case)
• Jan. 13 at Vision Rest Home (32 resident, 16 staff cases, three deaths; two staff cases and one death more than the day before)
• Jan. 8 at Twin Lakes Terrace (LTC) in Sarnia (18 resident, five staff cases, one death)
• Dec. 30 at Village on the St. Clair in Sarnia (28 resident, 14 staff cases, four deaths; one death more than the day before)

An outbreak at Bluewater Health, meantime, is linked to four patient and six staff cases, unchanged from the previous day, while an outbreak is active at an unnamed workplace, linked to three cases.

It’s still not clear if any school cases have been reported. The health unit itself does not report school cases.

Both the Lambton Kent District and St. Clair Catholic District school boards have paused public reporting while students are in remote learning.

The region’s test per cent positivity rate sat at 1.5 per cent as of the week of Jan. 24, down from 2.3 the week before, figures released Wednesday show.

It’s a far cry from the 6.2 per cent rate seen during the week of Jan. 3.

— With files from The Canadian Press