COVID-19 numbers down across the board

Southwestern Public Health reported confirming just seven new cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Tuesday, May 18, down from an average of 12 per day on the weekend.

The health unit is now tracking 105 ongoing cases, down from 124 on Monday.

No municipalities in the Southwestern region recorded an increase in the number of ongoing COVID-19 cases on Tuesday from Monday, and most experienced some kind of decrease.

St. Thomas and area dropped to 15 ongoing cases Tuesday from 19 on Monday, Bayham to three from four and West Elgin to two from 14.

Central Elgin remained at five and Aylmer and area at four.

In Oxford, Woodstock and area decreased to 35 from 36, Tillsonburg and area to 16 from 22, Ingersoll and area to seven from eight, Blandford-Blenheim to three from five, East Zorra-Tavistock to three from four and South-West Oxford to two from four. Zorra stayed at six and Norwich at four.

An outbreak at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital continues. To date, 15 patients and five staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, and one patient has died as a result.

Southwestern has so far this year detected that 680 cases in its region have involved “variants of concern,” considered more contagious and/or creating more severe symptoms than the original strain of COVID-19.

Of those, 600 have been resolved and 80 are ongoing.

Currently, five Southwestern residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, four of them in intensive care units.

The infection rate for the Southwestern region stands at 49.6 cases per 100,000 of population, down from 58.6 on Monday.

Across Ontario, 1,616 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Tuesday, down from 2,170 on Monday.