Southwestern scrutinizing seven possible variant cases

Southwestern Public Health reported on Tuesday afternoon, March 9, that it was looking at seven possible additional cases of COVID-19 created by a “variant of concern.”

Two cases had already been resolved, involving a variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

Megan Cornwell of Southwestern Public Health said that the potential seven other variant cases had not yet been confirmed by laboratory analysis.

On Wednesday, March 10, Southwestern reported six new confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from one on Tuesday.

That brought the total number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit to 43, down slightly from 44.

Aylmer and area dropped to 14 ongoing cases from 17, while St. Thomas and area remained at three and Central Elgin at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area decreased to nine from 10. Norwich rose to four from 3 and Ingersoll and area to two from one, while a new case appeared in South-West Oxford.

East Zorra-Tavistock stayed at three, Zorra at three, Blandford-Blenheim at two and Tillsonburg and area at one.

Across Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, the infection rate stayed at 20.8 cases per 100,000 of population.

In Ontario, 1,316 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Wednesday, up from 1,185 on Tuesday.