Cases rising but very slowly

The Southwestern Public Health region continues to experience a slow upward creep in the number of ongoing COVID-19 cases being tracked in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford.

The health unit reported three new confirmed cases on Friday, June 18, down from four the previous day, but the total number of ongoing cases increased slightly to 28 from 27.

St. Thomas and area rose to 10 ongoing cases Friday from nine on Thursday, while Aylmer and area and Southwold stayed at one each.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area dropped to eight from 10 while East Zorra-Tavistock increased to three from one. Zorra stayed at four and Tillsonburg and area at one.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 13.2 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 12.8 Thursday.

Across Ontario, 345 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Friday, down from 370 the previous day.