News
Southwestern positivity rate at all-year high
Southwestern Public Health reported Wednesday, Dec. 22, that the positivity rate, the percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back confirming the presence of the virus in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, has reached an all-time high for this year, at 6.8 percent as of Dec. 12. That compares to a positivity rate of 4.6 percent as…
Read MoreSWPH: up to six affected by vaccine dispensing error
Southwestern Public Health, in a statement on Tuesday, Dec. 21, announced an error, supposedly a harmless one, had been made in dispensing COVID-19 vaccine at its mass-immunization clinic in St. Thomas on November 30. Up to six individuals, or about two percent of those who attended the clinic that day, might have received a dose…
Read MoreTwo more deaths, including a centenarian
Southwestern Public Health announced on Tuesday, Dec. 21, that two more residents in the Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford area, including a St. Thomas woman who was over 100 years old and an Oxford woman in her 80s, had died as a result of COVID-19. That brings the total number of fatalities in the area…
Read MoreSouthwestern records 128 new COVID cases over weekend
Southwestern Public Health on Monday, Dec. 20, was reporting 128 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 from the weekend in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, or an average of just under 43 per day. The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit rose to 313 Monday from 234 on Friday. The rate of…
Read MoreOne person escapes Nova Scotia Line fire
Elgin Ontario Provincial Police Constable Norm Kelso reported Monday morning, Dec. 20, that one person had escaped a fire that fully-engulfed a home on Nova Scotia Line between Springwater and Sawmill roads, but a search was being made for others who might have been home at the time. OPP and Malahide Fire responded to the…
Read MorePort Burwell GO-VAXX visit cancelled
A planned walk-in clinic aboard the GO-VAXX COVID-19 immunization bus at Port Burwell’s fire station has been cancelled, Southwestern Public Health announced on Monday morning, Dec. 20. The clinic was supposed to be held today (Monday). The health unit suggested anyone who planned to visit the bus should instead visit www.covidvaccineLM.ca to book an appointment…
Read MoreFord: new COVID-19 restrictions
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in response to the rapid spread of new confirmed COVID-19 cases through the province and the discovery of the highly-contagious Omicron variant, announced new public health restrictions to try to curb additional cases on Friday, Dec. 17. Among them, the government ordered that a maximum of 10 persons would be allowed…
Read MoreOntario records over 3,000 new cases in one day
A total of 3,124 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Ontario on Friday, Dec. 17, the highest that number has been since May. The number of new cases the previous day had been 2,421. Southwestern Public Health on Friday reported 36 new confirmed cases in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, down from 46 Thursday.…
Read MoreHealth unit focusing on vaccinations
Southwestern Public Health will focus all its efforts on delivering COVID-19 vaccinations, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock said in a news briefing on Thursday, Dec. 16. That comes after Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday, Dec. 15, that in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the virus, anyone 18 and…
Read MoreSouthwestern records 46 confirmed new cases
Southwestern Public Health reported Thursday, Dec. 16, that 46 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed overnight in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, up from 26 new cases the previous day. However, the number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit dropped, to 208 from 229. (Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock…
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