Three COVID-19 deaths reported

Southwestern Public Health, in its first COVID-19 update in five days, announced on Wednesday, Feb. 23, that three residents of Oxford County had died in cases related to the pandemic.

They included a man in his 80s, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s, bringing the total number of such fatalities in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford since the pandemic began to 148.

The health unit also reported that 107 new cases of the virus had been confirmed in the last five days, or an average of just over 21 a day.

The number of ongoing confirmed cases being tracked by the health unit dropped to 227 Wednesday from 331 the previous Friday.

Eleven area residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, four of them in intensive care units, down from 15 and six respectively last Friday.

The rate of COVID-19 tests coming back as positive for the virus stood at 13.5 percent as of Sunday, Feb. 6, down from 15 percent a week earlier.