Jump to: Schools – Outbreaks – Testing – Elgin and Oxford – Huron and Perth – Sarnia and Lambton

Twenty-three more people have tested positive for the coronavirus while seven others have recovered, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported Thursday.

It marks the seventh day in a row that the region has reported a double-digit case increase, and is the third time in the last week the region has seen more than 20 new cases in one day.

It brings the region’s total case count to 1,313, of which 1,106 have recovered and 63 have died. The most recent death was reported on Saturday involving a 69-year-old man not linked to a seniors’ facility.

The update leaves 144 known active cases in the region, according to health unit figures.

Of the 23 cases reported Thursday, all are from London. Six are aged 0-19, five each are in their 20s and 30s, while three are in their 40s, one is in their 50s, two are in their 60s, and one is in their 70s.

Eleven cases are listed as having contracted the virus through close contact with a confirmed case, while four became infected through travel and two through an outbreak. Four cases are pending or undetermined, while two have no known link.

The number of non-ICU hospitalizations rose by one compared to the day before. It’s not clear how many people are currently hospitalized as such data isn’t readily available.

In their latest twice-weekly update Thursday, London Health Sciences Centre reported that inpatients with COVID-19 in its facilities numbered “five or less.” St. Joseph’s Health Care reported no such patients in its care.

Health officials reported 14 cases and seven recoveries on Wednesday, 11 cases and 10 recoveries on Tuesday, and 20 cases and nine recoveries on Monday.

The region has seen at least 171 cases reported just since the start of the month, according to the health unit.

“We are certainly seeing increased transmission in indoor environments where people are less than two metres and unmasked with people who aren’t within their immediate household,” said Dr. Alex Summers, the region’s associate medical officer of health, on Thursday.

“We aren’t seeing transmission in our schools. We aren’t seeing transmission in our long-term care homes or retirement homes. But we are seeing it in places where we find ourselves after school or after work or on the evenings or the weekends.”

Health unit data shows people under 30 have accounted for half of all cases seen this month. At least 33 have involved people 19 or younger, while 53 have involved twentysomethings.

The timing of the recent jump in cases comes on the heels of Halloween weekend, however health officials have said they have not identified cases specifically associated with any particular Halloween party or gathering. (One party near Western University saw as many as 150 people attend. Two people were later charged.)

Summers stressed the importance that Londoners continue to refrain from gathering indoors with others outside of their immediate households, such as friends of extended family members.

“It’s time to hearken back a little bit to what it was like back in the spring where we were so able to drive down the transmission and flatten the curve by making sure we were really keeping that distance between one another,” he said.

Summers said that based on recent case counts, test positivity rates, transmission sources, and trends in other regions, London and Middlesex would likely see tighter restrictions imposed soon by the province under its recent colour-coded framework.

“What is very clear is that we have metrics — be it incident rates or per cent positivity of tests or outbreaks — we have metrics that suggest that we require more restrictions in place here locally and we will be working to determine how best to make that happen,” he said.

“However, we know that the province is listening and we know that we’re working hard in the meantime on the ground here to make sure that we follow up on cases… and we work on outbreaks to make sure that we limit transmission as much as we can.”

Schools

For the first time in more than a week, no new school-linked cases have been reported.

A total of 34 school-linked cases have been reported in London and Middlesex since the start of the school year.

There was also no change to the number of cases currently active: 16.

The most recent cases, confirmed late Tuesday, were reported by the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) at Eagle Heights Public School and by the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) at Catholic Central High School. Both schools saw one student case each.

Elsewhere, active cases remain at TVDSB schools including Northbrae Public School (one student), Wilton Grove Public School (in before-and-after school program), Lambeth Public School (two students), Westminster Secondary School (one student), Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School (one student), Oakridge Secondary School (two students), and Arthur Ford Public School (one staff in the before-and-after school program.)

The LDCSB schools Sir Arthur Carty and St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School also have active cases, with four student cases and one student case, respectively.

Since-resolved cases were reported on:

Sept. 21 at H.B. Beal Secondary School involving a student.
Oct. 5 and Oct. 8 at École élémentaire La Pommeraie, both involving staff members.
Oct. 7 at Saunders Secondary School involving a student.
Oct. 9 and Oct. 12 at Sir Arthur Currie Public School, one involving a staff member, the other involving a student. The cases resulted in an outbreak declaration, which resolved on Oct. 30.
Oct. 12 at Mary Wright Public School in Strathroy involving a student.
Oct. 13 at Northdale Central Public School in Dorchester involving a student.
Oct. 17 at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School involving a student.
Oct. 21 at Lambeth Public School involving a student.
Oct. 25 at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School involving a student, at St. Andre Bessette Secondary School involving a student and at St. Kateri Separate School involving two students.
Oct. 29 at École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc involving one staff member, at West Nissouri Public School involving one student, and at A.B. Lucas Secondary School involving one staff member.
Oct. 31 at Eagle Heights Public School involving one staff member.

An outbreak declared Oct. 11 at Western University’s London Hall residence was declared over as of Tuesday. It was linked to at least six cases.

Institutional outbreaks

No new institutional outbreaks have been declared, and none of the three currently active outbreaks have been deemed over.

The most recent outbreaks were reported Nov. 10 and 11 at University Hospital in its 4IP General Medicine and 9IP Orthopaedics units, respectively.

It’s not clear how many people have been infected in the outbreak in 9IP Orthopaedics, but at least three people had tested positive in 4IP General Medicine, according to a CBC London report, citing an internal memo.

No designated care providers or visitors are currently permitted in either affected unit as a result.

One other active outbreak is located at Henley Place Long-Term Care Residence. The outbreak, declared Oct. 31, impacts the facility’s Harris and Medway areas. There’s no word on how many people have been infected as a result of the outbreak.

Since the pandemic began, at least 48 institutional outbreaks have been declared in London and Middlesex, of which 40 have been at seniors’ facilities.

Outbreaks at long-term care homes have been linked to 66 resident cases, 79 staff cases, and 26 deaths, while retirement home outbreaks have been tied to 46 resident cases, 32 staff cases, and 13 deaths.

Testing

Both Carling Heights and Oakridge Arena are now operating by-appointment-only, while appointment testing is also available for certain asymptomatic people at eight local pharmacies.

Since the change to an appointment-based model, Carling Heights has seen an increase in visits, up from between 195 and 251 per day last week to 401 on Tuesday and 446 on Wednesday.

Oakridge Arena has also been reporting between 300 and 345 visits per day over the last week and a half.

Last week, officials had urged symptomatic residents to get tested following a slump in visits to the assessment centres. People are urged to get tested within 24-to-48 hours of showing symptoms.

According to the health unit, the region’s test per cent positivity rate was 1.7 per cent as of the week of Nov. 1 — up from 0.7 per cent the week before — with just over 6,000 people tested.

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Ontario

Ontario is again reporting a daily record of COVID-19 cases, with 1,575 new infections recorded Thursday.

The province is also reporting 18 new deaths related to the novel coronavirus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 472 new cases in Toronto, 448 in Peel Region, 155 in York Region and 91 in Ottawa.

The province says 917 more cases are considered resolved, and nearly 39,600 tests have been completed since the last daily report.

In total, 431 people are hospitalized in Ontario due to COVID-19, including 98 in intensive care.

Ninety-four long-term care homes are currently experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19, with 695 active cases among residents and 435 among staff.

The latest figures bring the total of COVID-19 cases in Ontario to 89,784, with 3,293 deaths, and 75,228 cases resolved.

Ontario health officials unveiled the latest COVID-19 modelling numbers Thursday, which highlighted the province could be headed towards daily numbers upwards of 6,000 cases by mid-December.

The modelling warns that Ontario could hit 2,500 cases per day at a three per cent growth and around 6,500 a day at a five per cent growth rate by mid-December, according to government documents.

Health officials said that right now, five per cent growth is an “optimistic scenario.”

The province currently has a seven-day growth rate of four per cent, however, the last three days, the per cent growth is six, according to Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Meantime, the Ontario Medical Association is calling for the government to lower the thresholds for imposing stricter COVID-19 measures, saying the new tiered and colour-coded framework is too lax.

The group’s comments come on the heels of a Toronto Star report that said the provincial government ignored the advice of its own public health agency in designing the system introduced last week.

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Elgin and Oxford

Ten people have tested positive for the coronavirus while one person has recovered, Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported Thursday.

It brings the region’s total case count to 411, of which 358 have recovered. Five people have also died, most recently in early July.

As of Thursday, 48 confirmed cases are active in the county. Of those, 17 are in Woodstock, while 11 are in Norwich.

Elsewhere, four cases are active in both Aylmer and South-West Oxford, while three cases are active in Ingersoll. Two cases each are active in Blandford-Blenheim, East Zorra-Tavistock, Tillsonburg, and Zorra.

None are currently hospitalized, the health unit says. Twenty-five people have been hospitalized since March, including 13 requiring care in ICUs.

It’s not clear if anything in particular is driving the spike in cases, which is being seen in municipalities across the health unit’s jurisdiction.

No new cases were reported at local schools, according to the Thames Valley District School Board.

On Wednesday, two student cases were reported at Northdale Public School in Woodstock while one presumptive case was reported at Straffordville Public School.

An active case is also ongoing at South Ridge Public School in Tillsonburg involving one student, according to the province.

So far this school year, six cases in total have been reported at local schools. Two other cases had been reported previously involving St. Thomas Community Christian School and Mitchell Hepburn Public School.

The province’s database also still lists a child-care centre in Woodstock — Oxford Community Child Care — as being the site of two cases, one involving a child and another involving a staff member.

Meantime, there has been no change to the total number of outbreaks reported in the region.

No outbreaks are currently active. Seven have been declared since March, linked to 14 cases, of which all but one have involved staff members. No deaths have been reported.

An outbreak at Secord Trails in Ingersoll, linked to one staff case, was resolved as of Wednesday.

By location, 94 cases have been reported in Aylmer since the pandemic began, giving the municipality an incident rate of 1,254 cases per 100,000 people.

Elsewhere, Bayham has seen 74 cases, driven largely by a farm outbreak earlier this month, while Woodstock has seen 69, St. Thomas 51, Tillsonburg 34, Norwich 21, and Ingersoll 13.

As of the week of Nov. 1, the region’s test positivity rate stood at 0.9 per cent. At least 2,833 people were tested for the virus that week.

Huron and Perth

One person has died, 16 others have tested positive for the coronavirus, and one person has recovered, Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH) reported Thursday.

The death and at least two cases are linked to an active retirement home outbreak, while two cases are linked to local schools.

It brings the region’s total case count to 222, of which 152 have recovered and nine have died.

Health officials say nine of the new cases are in Stratford while five are in Perth East, and one each are in North Perth and Central Huron.

There are currently 61 known active cases of the virus in Huron and Perth. Health officials say 40 of them are either residents or staff of Cedarcroft Place in Stratford.

Twenty-one active cases are in the community, with seven “epidemiologically linked” to Cedarcroft.

The outbreak at Cedarcroft Place has seen at least 52 people — 36 residents and 16 staff — test positive.

Four residents have since died, and two residents are currently hospitalized, with one in intensive care.

The outbreak, the worst seen in the region during the pandemic, was first declared on Oct. 27 with three cases reported.

It’s one of two outbreaks that are currently active in the region. The other, located at Knollcrest Lodge in Perth East, was declared on Nov. 7 and is linked to one staff case.

At least 12 outbreaks have been declared at 10 facilities in the province since March. They’re linked to 79 cases and at least eight deaths.

The second-worst outbreak to be seen in the region occurred at Greenwood Court in Stratford from March 30 to May 11. It was linked to 16 cases and four deaths.

The number of school-linked cases in Huron and Perth has risen by two.

Officials with the Avon Maitland District School say a second case has been reported at Milverton Public School, while one case has been reported at Shakespeare Public School in Stratford.

Two of the three cases involve students. Details on the third were not immediately available.

Health officials said at Milverton, there was no exposure to anyone at the school, while at Shakespeare, a classroom was dismissed Wednesday morning out of an abundance of caution while the health unit investigated.

“Our investigation has determined that the confirmed case did not attend the school when they would have been potentially infectious to others, and therefore the risk to the school community is low,” the health unit said of the Shakespeare case.

Previously, one probable case had been reported Oct. 16 at Stratford’s St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School. However, it was not officially confirmed and was not reported in the province’s database.

Stratford has reported a total of 101 cases and eight deaths, while Perth County has seen 61 cases, including 26 in Perth East and 20 in North Perth.

Huron County, meantime, has seen 52 cases, including 15 in Central Huron and 13 in Bluewater, while St. Marys has reported eight cases and one death.

Some 51,884 tests had been conducted by the health unit as of Nov. 1, the most recent figures available. The test per cent positivity rate that week was 1.3 per cent. Just over 2,100 people were tested.

Sarnia and Lambton

The total number of cases reported in Lambton county has dropped by one after local health officials determined a case previously marked as confirmed did “not meet the case definition.”

It leaves the region’s case tally at 380, of which 348 have recovered, one more than the day before. Twenty-five people have also died, most recently in early June.

Few other details about the dropped case have been released, including what prompted health officials to reevaluate it.

There are now seven known active cases in the county, according to the health unit.

One person remains in hospital, according to Bluewater Health — one fewer than Wednesday. Health officials reported no change Wednesday and reported one case on Tuesday.

An outbreak declared Oct. 30 at Fiddick’s Retirement Home in Petrolia is over, the health unit says. The outbreak was tied to one resident case.

Thirteen outbreaks have been declared since March, of which 10 have been at seniors’ facilities, while one has been at Bluewater Health. They’re linked to 60 resident cases, 48 staff cases, and 16 deaths.

Two outbreaks have also been reported at unnamed workplaces, linked to seven cases.

Meantime, there has been no change to the number of school cases reported in Lambton. One case, reported at Riverview Central School in Port Lambton on Sunday, remains active. The case involves a student.

A total of five school-linked cases have been reported. Two have been at Northern Collegiate Institute and Vocational School in Sarnia, while one each has been at Bright’s Grove Public School in Sarnia and Colonel Cameron Public School in Corunna.

At least 51,383 people had been tested in the county as of Nov. 7, the most recent figures available.

— With files from The Canadian Press and Jessica Patton of Global News

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