Ongoing cases still decreasing

Southwestern Public Health reported 13 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Wednesday, April 28, down from 20 on Tuesday.

The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit also fell, to 141 from 150.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 30 ongoing cases Wednesday from 40 Tuesday. Aylmer and area and Dutton Dunwich rose to seven cases each from six each and Central Elgin to four from two, while a new case was discovered in Southwold.

Bayham remained at four and West Elgin at two.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area decreased to 44 from 45, Ingersoll and area to 12 from 14, Zorra to four from six and Norwich to three from four.

Tillsonburg and area increased to 17 from 14. Blandford-Blenheim and South-West Oxford stayed at three each.

The health unit so far this year has identified 370 cases involving variants of concern, considered more contagious and/or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain. Of those, 334 have been resolved and 36 are ongoing.

As of Wednesday, 10 Southwestern residents were hospitalized with COVID-19, with two of them in Intensive Care Units.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 66.7 cases per 100,000 of population, down from 70.9 on Tuesday.

Across Ontario, 3,480 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Wednesday, up from 3,625 on Tuesday.