Southwestern ongoing cases in triple digits

Southwestern Public Health reported 63 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 from the Easter long weekend on Monday morning, April 5.

The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit increased to 115 Monday from 90 last Thursday.

St. Thomas and area increased to 23 cases Monday from 20 last Thursday, Aylmer and area to eight from two, Bayham to two from one and a new case appeared in Southwold.

Central Elgin fell to three from seven, Malahide to three from five and West Elgin to two from three. Dutton Dunwich remained at three.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area rose to 33 from 21, Ingersoll and area to 14 from nine, Tillsonburg and area to 12 from seven, East Zorra-Tavistock to three from one and Zorra to three from one, while two new cases appeared in Norwich.

Blandford-Blenheim decreased to two from four and South-West Oxford to one from six.

Three persons are currently hospitalized in the region with COVID-19, one in an intensive care unit.

So far, Southwestern has recorded 81 cases of COVID-19 involving variants of the virus. Most are confirmed or presumed to be of the United Kingdom variant, one is confirmed to be of the South African variant, and one is either the South African or Brazilian variant.

To date, 64 variant cases have been resolved and 17 are ongoing.

The infection rate in the Southwestern region stands at 54.4 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 42.6 last Thursday.

Across Ontario, 2,938 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Monday, 3,041 on Sunday, 3,009 on Saturday and 3,089 on Friday.