Seven COVID-19 deaths in last week

While the number of ongoing cases of COVID-19 has steadily declined over the last week, seven deaths in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford were still linked to the virus by Southwestern Public Health.

That’s half the 14 deaths announced in the previous week.

The latest fatality was reported on Tuesday, Jan. 26, involved an Elgin man in his 60s, and brought the death toll connected to the virus in the Southwestern region to 55.

On a more positive note, the health unit announced only nine confirmed new cases of the virus on Monday, Jan. 25, the first single-digit increase in a long while.

The number of new cases reported on Tuesday, Jan. 26 was 13. The health unit also reported that day it was tracking 230 ongoing confirmed cases, down from 249 the previous day.

Aylmer and area increased to 27 cases on Tuesday from 26 on Monday and Bayham to seven from six.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 27 from 30, Central Elgin to two from four and Southwold to one from five, while Malahide remained steady at three and West Elgin at two.

In Oxford, Tillsonburg and area decreased to 57 cases from 60, Norwich to 27 from 33, East Zorra-Tavistock to 11 from 13 and Ingersoll and area to 10 from 11. South-West Oxford rose to seven case from six, while Woodstock and area remained steady at 45 and Zorra at four.