Fourteen COVID-linked deaths in last week

Southwestern Public Health reported on Tuesday, Jan. 19, the deaths of two Elgin women linked to COVID-19, one 88 and one 62.

That brings the death toll in the Southwestern region of Elgin, St. Thomas and Woodstock to 47. Fourteen deaths involving COVID-19 have been reported in the last seven days.

Southwestern recorded 31 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed by testing on Tuesday, up from 28 the previous day, but the number of ongoing cases being tracked declined sharply to 346 from 382.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 52 cases Tuesday from 69 Monday, Bayham to 11 from 13, Central Elgin to six from 12 and West Elgin to four from three. Aylmer and area rose slightly to 38 cases from 37, while Southwold remained steady at eight and Malahide at two. (The Aylmer number includes a large swath of Malahide.)

In Oxford, Tillsonburg and area decreased to 87 cases from 89, Woodstock and area to 43 from 45 and Ingersoll and area to 13 from 20. Norwich remained steady at 41, East Zorra-Tavistock at 21, Zorra at 11, South-West Oxford at nine and Blandford-Blenheim at one.

Two major outbreaks continue at PeopleCare long-term care home in Tavistock and Maple Manor Nursing Home in Tillsonburg.

At Maple Manor, 83 residents are infected with COVID-19, along with 52 staff. An additional 17 residents have died.

At PeopleCare, 40 residents and 37 staff are infected, and seven residents have died.

Across the Southwestern region, the infection rate stands at 163.6 per 100,000 of population, down from 186.6 Monday.

Ontario reported a total of 1,913 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, down from 2,578 on Monday.