St. Thomas and area COVID-19 cases keep rising

Southwestern Public Health announced Thursday, Dec. 2, that an Elgin woman in her 50s had died as a result of COVID-19.

She’s the 99th death in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford since the pandemic began in Ontario.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed ongoing cases of COVID-19 in St. Thomas and area continued to climb, reaching 54 on Thursday, up by eight from the previous day, while Aylmer and area was going down, with 14 Thursday compared to 21 Wednesday.

Southwestern was reporting 29 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, up from 13 on Wednesday.

The total number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit now stands at 170, down by one from Wednesday.

In addition to St Thomas and Aylmer, local cases include 10 in Bayham, two in Malahide and one each in Central Elgin and West Elgin.

SWPH stated that eight residents of the Southwestern area were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, with five of them in intensive care units.

The rate of confirmed ongoing cases of COVID-19 stands at 79.9 per 100,000 of population, down slightly from 80.4 on Wednesday.

Across Ontario, 959 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Thursday, up from 780 the previous day.