Southwestern reports 24 new cases

Southwestern Public Health recorded 24 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Friday, May 14, up from 16 the previous day.

The health unit is now tracking 138 ongoing cases, up from 132.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 25 ongoing cases Friday from 26 on Thursday, while Central Elgin rose to five from one.

Aylmer and area remained at eight, West Elgin at six, Bayham at three and Dutton Dunwich at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area increased to 40 from 32, Ingersoll and area to 10 from eight and Blandford-Blenheim to five from four.

Tillsonburg and area dropped to 23 from 27, Norwich to six from seven and East Zorra-Tavistock to four from six. South-West Oxford stayed at two.

Currently, 12 Southwestern residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, five of them in intensive care units.

The numbers for an outbreak at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital remain unchanged from Thursday, with 12 patients and five staff members confirmed to have COVID-19. One patient has died.

So far this year, Southwestern has confirmed 640 COVID-19 cases involve a “variant of concern” considered more contagious or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain.

Of those, 542 have been resolved and 98 are ongoing.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 65.2 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 64.2 on Thursday.

Across Ontario, 2,362 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Friday, down from 2,759 on Thursday.