LONDON, ONT. -- The Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) is reporting 94 new COVID-19 cases and one death Thursday.

The rise in cases comes as Premier Doug Ford prepares to announce Ontario's new reopening plan. 

The death was a woman in her 90s and was associated with a long-term care home.

The region now has a total of 11,826 cases and 216 deaths, with 10,990 cases resolved leaving 620 active - a number that had been steadily declining until Thursday.

The number of cases is up from Wednesday which also saw an increase in cases following a steady decline in daily counts earlier this week.

There are now 2,674 cases with a variant of concern – almost all the B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the U.K.

As of Tuesday, over 50 per cent of adults in Middlesex-London have received at least one vaccine dose, and the MLHU is asking residents to "keep this momentum going!"

There are currently four active outbreaks at seniors' facilities in the region and one at a child-care centre.

At London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) there are 49 inpatients with 23 in the ICU. For patients brought in from outside the region 12 are in acute care and 14 are in the ICU.

Meanwhile, Southwestern Public Health continues to deal with an outbreak at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital there have been 19 cases and one death. An outbreak at Carresant Care in Woodstock is no longer listed as active.

Here are the most recently available numbers from other local public health authorities:

  • Elgin-Oxford – 10 new, 102 active, 3,699 total, 3,518 resolved, 79 deaths, 707 variants
  • Grey-Bruce – seven new, 45 active, 1,311 total, 1,260 resolved, seven deaths, 357 variants
  • Haldimand-Norfolk – 12 new, 126 active, 2,580 total, 2,406 resolved, 43 deaths (one new)
  • Huron-Perth – six new, 77 active, 1,746 total, 1,612 resolved, 57 deaths (one new), 223 variants
  • Sarnia-Lambton – three new, 66 active, 3,430 total, 3,306 resolved, 58 deaths, 537 variants

To date, an ongoing outbreak at Bluewater Health has seen nine cases but no deaths.

Across Ontario, new infections climbed back up past 2,000 following two days of case numbers reported under that mark.

The 2,400 cases logged Thursday represent a significant increase over the 1,588 added a day earlier.