90th death from COVID-19 reported

Southwestern Public Health reported on Tuesday, Oct. 19, that an Elgin woman in her 80s had died as a result of COVID-19, the third such death in less than a week. 

The death of a St. Thomas man in his 60s was reported by Southwestern Public Health on Thursday, Oct. 14 and of an Oxford woman in her 70s on Friday, Oct. 15.

Theirs were the 88th, 89th and 90th deaths attributed to COVID-19 in this region since the pandemic began.

Southwestern Public Health was reporting eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, Oct. 19, down from an average of 10 per day over the weekend.

The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford stood at 76 Tuesday, down from 88 Monday.

Residents 29 years old and younger accounted for 44.8 percent of those cases.

Three Southwestern-area residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, one of them in an intensive care unit.

The number of local ongoing cases as of Tuesday are 10 in St. Thomas and area, nine in Bayham, eight in Aylmer, three in West Elgin and two in Malahide.

The infection rate for the Southwestern area stood at 35.9 cases per 100,000 of population on Tuesday, down from 41.6 on Monday.

Across Ontario, 328 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Tuesday, down from 373 Monday.