Southwestern: 78th COVID-19 death

Southwestern Public Health announced Thursday, May 13, the COVID-19-related death of an Oxford woman in her 90s, a resident at Caressant Care Nursing Home in Woodstock.

The nursing home is in the midst of an outbreak, with four residents and six staff members having tested positive for COVID-19.

Another outbreak continues at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital, where 14 patients and 5 staff members have confirmed cases of COVID-19. One of those patients has died.

Across Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, 16 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Thursday, down from 20 the previous day. The health unit is tracking 132 ongoing cases, down from 136.

Aylmer and area decreased to eight ongoing cases Thursday from nine Wednesday, West Elgin to six from seven and Bayham to three from four.

St. Thomas and area stayed at 26, Central Elgin at one and Dutton Dunwich at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area dropped to 32 from 34, Tillsonburg and area to 27 from 28, Norwich to seven from nine and South-West Oxford to two from three. Ingersoll and area increased to eight from six, East Zorra-Tavistock to six from five and Blandford-Blenheim to four from two. Zorra stayed at one.

So far this year, Southwestern Public Health has linked 619 cases to COVID-19 “variants of concern,” considered more contagious or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain.

Of those, 525 have been resolved and 94 are ongoing.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 64.2 cases per 100,000 of population, down marginally from 64.3 on Wednesday.

Across Ontario, 2,759 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Thursday, up from 2,320 on Wednesday.