Twenty new cases Wednesday, May 12

After a dip to five new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford yesterday, the number surged back up to 20 on Wednesday, May 12, Southwestern Public Health reported.

That brings the number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit to 136, up from 133 on Tuesday.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 26 ongoing cases Wednesday from 31 on Tuesday and West Elgin to seven from eight.

Aylmer and area stayed at nine, Bayham at four and Central Elgin and Dutton Dunwich at one each.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area increased to 34 from 31, Norwich to nine from seven, Ingersoll and area to six from four and Blandford-Blenheim to two from one, while a new case was found in Zorra.

Tillsonburg and area remained at 28, East Zorra-Tavistock at five and South-West Oxford at three.

A total of 15 residents of the Southwestern region have been hospitalized due to COVID-19, six of them in intensive care units.

An outbreak at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital continues, with 12 patients and five staff members having confirmed cases of COVID-19. One patient has died.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 64.3 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 62.9 on Tuesday.

Across Ontario, 2,320 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Wednesday, up from 2,073 the previous day.