COVID-19 cases on the rise

Southwestern Public Health was reporting nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Wednesday, Aug. 4, part of an upward trend locally.

Over the Civic Holiday weekend, 13 new cases had been confirmed, an average of just over three a day.

The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit has risen to 38, up from 31 on Tuesday.

St. Thomas and area had 10 ongoing cases on Wednesday, up from eight on Tuesday, West Elgin rose to five from two and Southwold stayed at one.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area increased to 15 from 14, a new case was discovered in Blandford-Blenheim and Blandford-Blenheim remained at six case.

No residents of the Southwestern region are hospitalized with COVID-19 at this time.

The infection rate for the area stands at 18 cases per 100,000 of population, up from 14.7 on Tuesday and more than double the 7.1 rate on Tuesday, July 27.

Across Ontario, though, only 139 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Wednesday.