Oxford man in his 50s dies with COVID-19

An Oxford man in his 50s has become the 145th fatality attributed to COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford since the pandemic began in the Southwestern Public Health area almost two years ago.

Previously, he would have been counted as the 148th such death, but the health unit has changed how it counts deaths linked to the virus.

SWPH Communications Manager Megan Cornwell explained on Wednesday, Feb. 16, “We have made some changes to our reporting to align with recent changes from the province.

“Previously, if an individual was COVID-19 positive and they died, they were listed as a COVID-19 fatality on our dashboard. However, now we’re only including deaths where COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death or a contributing cause of death.

“This reclassification resulted in 3 fatalities being removed as COVID-19 was not the contributing cause of death or underlying cause of death in these cases.”

The health unit on Wednesday also reported that 53 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed since Monday in the Southwestern area, or an average of 26.5 a day, compared to an average of just under 35 daily over the weekend.

SWPH is now tracking 343 ongoing confirmed cases in its area, down from 394 Monday.

Local ongoing cases include 97 in St. Thomas and area, 17 in Aylmer and Malahide, 12 in Central Elgin, eight in Bayham, four in Dutton Dunwich, two in Southwold and one in West Elgin.

Nineteen local residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, six of them in intensive care units, compared to 24 and six respectively on Monday.

Outbreaks of two or more confirmed cases in long-term care and retirement homes continue to drop, with five still being tracked on Wednesday.

The rate of COVID-19 tests coming back as positive for the virus also continues to decline, standing at 13.5 percent as of Wednesday, Feb. 6, down from 15 percent a week earlier.