Nine new cases from the weekend

Southwestern Public Health on Monday, July 12, was reporting nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford from the weekend, or an average of three per day.

That’s identical to Friday, when three new cases were reported.

The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit dropped to 13 Monday from 17 Friday.

Ongoing cases in Bayham increased to six Monday from one Friday, while St. Thomas and area dropped to two from four and West Elgin to one from two.

Aylmer and area remained unchanged at one ongoing cases.

In Oxford, Woodstock decreased to two from six and East Zorra-Tavistock stayed at one.

One Southwestern resident is hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 6.1 cases per 100,000 of population, down from 7.6 on Friday.

As of Sunday, July 11, 78 percent of adult residents in the Southwestern area had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, compared to the provincial average of 79.2 percent.

The region fell short, though, on full immunizations for adults, with Southwestern coming in at 46.9 percent compared to 56.2 percent across Ontario.

To date, 78,544 Southwestern residents have been fully immunized with two doses, or 36.9 percent of the full population of 211,000, including those under 12.