Eleven new cases in Southwestern region

Southwestern Public Health reported 11 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Wednesday, May 5, down slightly from 12 on Tuesday.

The health unit is now tracking 126 ongoing cases of the virus, down from 136 Tuesday.

St. Thomas and area decreased to 27 ongoing cases Wednesday from 31 Tuesday and Central Elgin to five from six. Bayham rose to two from one.

Aylmer stayed at 10, Dutton Dunwich at three and West Elgin at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area dropped to 29 from 33, Tillonsonburg and area to 28 from 31 and Ingersoll and area to four from five.

East Zorra-Tavistock increased to six from four, Norwich to six from five and South-West Oxford to three from two. Blandford-Blenheim remained at two.

So far this year, Southwestern has found that 522 cases of COVID-19 in the region involved “variants of concern” considered more contagious and/or more likely to create severe symptoms than the original strain.

Of those, 430 have been resolved and 92 are ongoing.

Currently, 12 Southwestern residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, four of them in Intensive Care Units.

The infection rate for the region stands at 59.6 cases per 100,000 of population, down from 64.3 on Tuesday.

Across Ontario, 2,941 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Wednesday, up from 2,791 on Tuesday.