St. Thomas man’s death linked to COVID-19

Southwestern Public Health announced Monday, May 10, that a St. Thomas man in his 70s had died as the result of COVID-19.

That brings the total number of deaths in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford since the pandemic began to 77.

The health unit also reported 58 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, or an average of just over 19 a day.

Southwestern is now tracking 138 ongoing cases of COVID-19, up from 122 on Friday.

As of Monday, 16 Southwestern region residents were hospitalized with COVID-19, eight of them in Intensive Care Units.

An outbreak at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital continues to worsen, with 10 residents and five staff members testing positive for COVID-19, up from seven and four on Friday.

The number of ongoing cases in St. Thomas and area increased to 30 Monday from 28 Friday, in Aylmer and area to eight from seven and in West Eglin to eight from three.

Bayham remained at four and Central Elgin decreased to one from three.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area rose to 34 from 25 and in South-West Oxford to three from two. Tillsonburg and area stayed at 30, Norwich at seven, East-Zorra Tavistock at six, Ingersoll and area at five and Blandford-Blenheim at two.

So far this year, Southwestern has confirmed 584 cases involving “variants of concern” considered more contagious and/or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain of COVID-19.

To date, 491 have been resolved and 93 are ongoing. Most involve a variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 65.2 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 57.7 on Friday.

Across Ontario, 2,716 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Monday, compared to 3,216 on Sunday and 2,864 on Saturday.