MIDDLESEX CENTRE, ONT. -- After setting a record last week and tying it twice this week, the Middlesex-London Health Unit is reporting a new record high Thursday with 58 new COVID-19 cases.
The previous record of 53 cases was set last week, and then tied on both Monday and Tuesday of this week.
The cases reported Thursday bring the region’s cumulative total to 2,257, with 1,858 resolved and 82 deaths, leaving 317 active cases.
The totals include one new death, a man in his 80s, associated with the outbreaks at the London Health Sciences Centre’s (LHSC) University Hospital.
It brings the total number of deaths associated with those outbreaks to 17.
The number of active outbreaks at University Hospital has dropped to six, after the outbreak in the 4TU Multi-Organ Transplant Unit was declared over on Thursday.
There have now been a total of 76 patient and 77 staff cases associated with the outbreaks at University Hospital.
There are also two outbreaks ongoing at Victoria Hospital, in the C6-400 Acute Medicine and the C5-100 Ent/Burns/Plastics units, though fewer than five patients and five staff cases have been associated with the outbreaks and there have been no deaths.
In total, LHSC says there are 23 inpatients and 31 staff with active cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday.
There are also ongoing outbreaks at four seniors’ facilities, five London-area schools and two residence at Western University.
Southwestern Public Health is also reporting a record high number of new cases and one new death Thursday in Elgin and Oxford counties. There are also five ongoing outbreaks in seniors’ facilities in the region.
There is some concern Elgin and Oxford could move from orange-restrict to red-control under Ontario’s COVID-19 restrictions.
The St. Thomas Minor Hockey Association sent out a notification about potential changes to protocols starting Monday if the region is moved to more stringent measures.
Middlesex-London is already in the red zone of provincial restrictions.
Here is where the cases stand in the region based on the most recent publicly available data:
- Elgin-Oxford – 33 new, 149 active, 833 total, 673 resolved, 11 deaths
- Sarnia-Lambton – 10 new, 34 active, 470 total, 409 resolved, 27 deaths
- Haldimand-Norfolk – 10 new, 59 active, 758 total, 661 resolved, 33 deaths
- Grey-Bruce – nine new, 33 active, 413 total, 380 resolved, no deaths
- Huron-Perth – 12 new, 59 active, 482 total, 403 resolved, 20 deaths
Across the province, another record was set, with more than 2,400 new infections reported on Thursday.