New COVID-19 cases jump in Aylmer area, across Ontario

Southwestern Public Health was reporting 24 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, April 9, up from 16 the previous day, and across Ontario, 4,227 new cases were confirmed, up from 3,295 Thursday.

In Aylmer and area, the number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit jumped to 19 Friday from 11 Thursday. Bayham and Central Elgin rose to three each from two each.

St. Thomas and area stayed at 24, Dutton Dunwich at six, Malahide at one and Southwold at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock decreased to 36 from 39, Ingersoll and area to six from seven, Zorra to three from four and East Zorra-Tavistock to two from three.

Tillsonburg and area increased to eight from seven, South-West Oxford to six from four, Norwich to three from two and Blandford-Blenheim to two from one.

To date this year, Southwestern had confirmed 118 cases involving “variants of concern” that are more contagious and/or produce more severe symptoms that the original strain of COVID-19.

So far, 83 have been resolved while 35 are ongoing. Most involve a variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

A South African variant has been confirmed in two resolved and three ongoing cases. Two ongoing and one resolved cases involve either that variant or one first identified in Brazil.

The infection rate in the Southwestern region now stands at 58.2 cases per 100,000 of population.