July 23, 2021 1:29 p.m.
It was a return to double-digit daily case numbers in London and Middlesex Counties on Friday.
Ten more infections have been reported by the Middlesex London Health Unit in the past 24 hours. That month, there were only four more days that the daily case numbers rose above nine – July 2 with 13 cases, July 14 with 12 cases, July 16 with 10 cases, and July 21 with 12 cases.
The total number of cases in the region since the pandemic began is now 12,729.
No more deaths were recorded on Friday, leaving the local death toll at 229. It has been more than a week since someone in the city or county died after contracting the virus.
The number of resolved cases rose by eight to 12,446. There are 54 known active cases in the region, with the number above 50 for the third straight week.
The London Health Sciences Center (LHSC) has five or fewer inpatients for COVID-19 under its care as of Thursday. Less than five of them are in the intensive care unit. There are currently no hospital staff who have tested positive for the virus.
The number of cases of worrying variants found in the area remained unchanged at 3,563. There were 3,379 cases with variant B.1.1.7 (alpha) from Great Britain, 105 cases of variant P.1 (gamma) from Brazil, two cases of variant B.1.351 (beta) from South Africa, and 73 cases of B. .1.617 (Delta) variant originally found in India.
For parents of unvaccinated children aged 12-17, this will be the last weekend your child will receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine so they can be fully vaccinated before they return to school in September. It takes four weeks after the first vaccination to be eligible for the second dose and then another two weeks for full immunity. Walk-ins for the first and second dose are accepted in all four mass vaccination clinics in the region. Appointments can also be booked online at covidvaccinelm.ca.
No new COVID-19 cases were reported in Elgin and Oxford counties for the second day in a row. Southwestern Public Health, the health unit for the area, said the total local number of cases remains at 3,932, with 3,831 being resolved. The death toll remained unchanged at 84. There are currently 17 active cases in the two counties. As of Thursday, 77.8 percent of the area’s residents ages 12 and older had received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 57.6 percent had received both doses.
For the second time since Sunday, the number of new COVID-19 cases across the province rose to over 150.
Public health officials confirmed 192 new infections on Friday, up from 183 on Thursday. 135 cases were logged on Wednesday, 127 on Tuesday and 130 on Monday.
Toronto had the highest daily number of cases in the province for the past 24 hours at 43, followed by the Peel region at 25 and the York and Waterloo regions at 18 each.
The total number of cases in Ontario since the pandemic began stands at 548,986.
There were another 127 new cases of the UK variant in Ontario. That brings the total number of the province from B.1.1.7. (Alpha) cases to 145,148. The cases of the B.1.351 (beta) variant increased by six to 1,485 and the P.1 (gamma) variants increased by 34 to 5,130. The number of new cases with variant B.1.617.2 (Delta) increased by 131 to a total of 3,885.
Another fatality was reported, bringing the death toll in the province to 9,308.
Hospital admissions in Ontario have decreased by three, with 137 COVID-19 positive patients enrolled. There are 136 patients in the intensive care unit and 84 on ventilators. Intensive care unit numbers include patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19 but have since recovered and remain due to other complications.
The number of solved cases is now 538,271. There are currently 1,407 active cases of the virus in Ontario.
19,757 COVID-19 tests were processed in the past 24 hours, slightly more than 19,599 the previous day. Ontario’s current positivity rate remains low at 0.9 percent.
To date, the province has administered 18,724,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with more than 8.3 million people receiving both vaccinations that require full vaccination.
