Nine new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, Sept. 9

Southwestern Public Health was reporting nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, Sept. 9. The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford increased to 37 Thursday from 33 on Wednesday.

Just over 40 percent of all ongoing cases involve children from newborn through 19 years old.

St. Thomas and area has eight ongoing cases and Aylmer and area five.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area has 11, South-West Oxford six, Ingersoll and area three, Blandford-Blenheim two, Tillsonburg and area one and Zorra one.

Two Southwestern region residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, one in an intensive care unit.

The infection rate for the area stands at 17.5 cases per 100,000 of population.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 7, 83.1 percent of Southwestern residents 12 and older had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 83.9 percent across Ontario, and 76.9 percent had received two doses, compared to 77.4 percent provincially.

On Thursday, Ontario recorded 789 new cases of the virus, up from 554 on Wednesday.