Outbreak at Tillsonburg hospital

Southwestern Public Health reported an outbreak of new COVID-19 cases at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital on Thursday, May 6.

Three patients and two staff members were ill with the virus, the health unit stated.

Only one other institutional outbreak is being tracked by the health unit in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford at this time, at Caressant Care Nursing Home in Woodstock, where three residents and five staff members have COVID-19.

Across its region, Southwestern was reporting 17 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, up from 11 the previous day. The number of ongoing cases in the region dropped to 117 Thursday from 126 on Wednesday.

Aylmer and area decreased to five ongoing cases Thursday from 10 on Wednesday, Central Elgin to two from five and Dutton Dunwich to two from three.,

Bayham rose to four from two and West Elgin to two from one, while St. Thomas and area stayed at 27.

In Oxford, Tillsonburg and area  fell to 27 from 28, Woodstock and area to 26 from 29, East Zorra-Tavistock to five from six and South-West Oxford to two from three. Norwich increased to eight from six and Ingersoll and area to five from four, while Blandford-Blenheim remained at two.

So far this year, Southwestern has identified 536 confirmed cases involving variants of concern considered more contagious and/or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain of COVID-19.

Of those, 451 have been resolved and 85 are ongoing. Most involve a variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

Currently, 13 Southwestern residents are hospitalized due to COVID-19, with five of them in Intensive Care Units.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 55.3 per 100,000 of population, down from 59.6 on Wednesday.

Across Ontario, 3,429 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Thursday, up from 2,941 on Wednesday.