COVID-19 by the numbers

Southwestern Public Health was reporting 15 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, Dec. 15, down from 31 the previous day.

St. Thomas and area was at 26 cases, down from 32 the previous day, Aylmer and area 22, down from 26, Bayham 11, down from 13, and West Elgin remained steady at two cases and Central Elgin at one.

In Oxford, Norwich was at 20 cases, down from 21, Woodstock and area 12, down from 17, Zorra four, down from five and East Zorra-Tavistock, three, down from five.

Tillsonburg and area rose to 12 from seven and Ingersoll and area to six from five, while a new case appeared in South-West Oxford.

The infection rate across the Southwestern region stood at 60.5 per 100,000 of population on Tuesday, down from 67.1 the previous day.

Across Ontario, 2,275 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, a new record and up from 1,940 the previous day.

However, a change in how the province records cases meant the Ontario Ministry of Health included an additional 2.5 hours of data for Tuesday, which might be part of the reason the number jumped so much.