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One COVID-19 death, 85 new cases in London area
The message from the Middlesex-London Health Unit to pandemic-weary area residents this weekend: Stay on target.
“It’s so critical that we just hold fast,” Alex Summers, the associate medical officer of health, said Sunday. “We need to stay the course for another four weeks at least.”
The plea from Summers came as the health unit reported 85 new infections, as well as one new death, on Sunday.
The latest death is a man in his 60s with who did not live in a retirement or long-term care home. He is the 194th person to die of COVID-19 in London and Middlesex County.
Summers said the death of a person in their 60s is another demonstration that the coronavirus can claim anyone.
“This is a virus . . .that leaves no stone unturned,” he said, meaning the third wave is unlike previous waves, when most fatalities were those in their advanced years.
The 85 new cases stand out because Sunday is the first day in several that there wasn’t a triple-digit increase in cases locally. But Summers said it would be premature to draw any conclusions about where we are in the third wave.
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“I think it’s probably too soon to draw any conclusions after the high numbers we’ve seen the last couple weeks,” he said. “Our incident rate is the highest it’s ever been in the last week.” The health unit reported 133 new cases on Saturday.
Ontario reported 4,250 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday as hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units both reached new highs over the past 24 hours.
The province said there are 2,107 patients in hospital with the virus, with 741 of them in an ICU.
On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced new restrictions to help contain the spread of COVID-19, including closing the borders and setting up police checkpoints at entries. Ford also extended the stay-at-home order that went into effect April 8 from to six weeks from four.
Though no outbreaks were declared on the weekend, Summers said, the Cargill chicken-processing plant in east London remains closed following an outbreak that infected 80 employees.
A COVID-19 outbreak was declared Friday at London Hall at Western University. Eight residences at Western and one at King’s University College have active outbreaks.
On Wednesday, the health unit reported 176 new cases, a new record for Middlesex-London. The first case of the P.1 variant, also known as the Brazilian variant, was detected in London last week.
In addition, the region passed the 9,000-case mark. As of Sunday, there are 9,138 confirmed COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex-County.
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“When I look over the course of the week, it’s been a really intense week,” Summers said.
London Health Sciences Centre had 65 COVID-19 patients in hospital Friday, its highest total ever. Twenty eight were in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
LHSC had opened 18 new ICU beds and could open another 17 to 20 in the coming weeks, chief medical officer Adam Dukelow said.
“It will be a very challenging two to five weeks ahead,” he said Friday.
Summers said health-unit officials will be looking closely at the incident rate this week, which he calls an “epidemiological cornerstone.”
“The incident rate is the number of new cases over a period of time standardized to the population,” he said. It gives scientist a common frame of reference for comparing cases between communities, or cases within a community compared to infections in the past.
“These are very, very challenging times for sure,” Summers said. “It’s a tough time for everybody.”
danbrown@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/DanatLFPress
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'Just hold fast': Surge in infections, new death shows COVID's danger: Summers - London Free Press (Blogs)
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