As local COVID-19 numbers decline, LHSC taking in Manitoba patients

London, Ont. -

Thursday evening in London, Ont. a small jet lands at the London International Airport.

This plane is not carrying casual passengers; instead, as the doors open a team of medical professionals dressed in PPE unloads a COVID-19 patient from Manitoba on a stretcher.

London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has been taking in a small number of patients from the neighbouring province in recent weeks (six in total) as the local hospitalization numbers steadily decline.

Currently at LHSC there are fewer than five out of region patients in acute care and few than five in critical care, including the lasted patient to arrive Thursday.

While the images are dramatic to see it’s a testament to the current state of COVID-19 in southwestern Ontario and the wider province as a whole.

A steady decline in daily case numbers is also being reflected in local hospitalizations.

Currently LHSC has fewer than 30 inpatients, a considerable decline from April when the hospital reached record numbers.

Latest local numbers:

The Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) is reporting 22 new cases of COVID-19 Friday as the number of active cases continues to fall.

The new cases brings the local total since the start of the pandemic to 12,321 with 11,927 recoveries and 220 deaths.

The number of active cases is now at 174 continuing a steady decline in recent days.

There are 3,121 cases with a confirmed variant and another 352 with a mutation-positive sample.

There is one ongoing outbreak at long-term care or retirement facilities and there is one ongoing outbreak in a childcare setting.

As of June 1, more than 282,000 vaccine doses have been administered in the region.

Here is how the daily case numbers break down for other regional health units:

• Elgin-Oxford –four new, 42 active, 3,806 total, 3,682 resolved, 82 deaths, 801 variants
• Grey-Bruce –five new, four active, 1,350 total, 1,337 resolved, seven deaths, 384 variants
• Haldimand-Norfolk – four new, 38 active, 2,656 total, 2,566 resolved, 46 deaths
• Huron-Perth –two new, 40 active, 1,830 total, 1,733 resolved, 57 deaths, 282 variants
• Sarnia-Lambton – 11 new, 37 active, 3,512 total, 3,463 resolved, 60 deaths, 565 variants

Ontario reported fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the fifth straight day on Friday.

The province confirmed 914 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, which comes after logging 870 new infections on Thursday, 699 on Tuesday and 733 on Wednesday.

The latest report comes as Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health said to expect a potential uptick in cases as a result of the Victoria Day long weekend.

With files from CTV Toronto.