News Headlines

COVID-19 has continued to spread in long-term care and retirement homes in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford over the last week. Southwestern Public Health reported on Tuesday, Jan. 18, that outbreaks of at least two or more confirmed cases were being tracked at 18 out of 34 such homes in its area, up by five…

A woman in her 80s residing at Valleyview Home, a long-term care facility in St. Thomas, on Friday, Jan. 14, became the 11th fatality related to COVID-19 in five days in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford. Hers was the 128th such death in the Southwestern Public Health area since the pandemic began. Two deaths were…

Southwestern Public Health on Wednesday, Jan. 12, announced the deaths related to COVID-19 of four area residents, including a man in his 50s from Elgin, an Oxford man in his 60s, an Oxford woman in her 80s and a man in his 70s who was a resident at Secord Trails Care Community, a nursing home…

Southwestern Public Health announced three COVID-19 related deaths on Tuesday, Jan. 11, all residents of long-term care or retirement homes, including a woman in her 90s at Terrace Lodge in Malahide, a woman in her 80s at Caressant Care on Bonnie Place in St. Thomas and a man in his 80s at Secord Trails in…

St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital on Friday night, Jan. 7, reported an outbreak of COVID-19 in its fifth floor Acute Medicine Unit, with three patients testing positive for the virus. “The unit is currently closed to essential caregivers,” the hospital said in a statement. “STEGH is working closely with Southwestern Public Health Unit and its…

St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital reported late Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 5, that it is running at 120 percent over its in-patient capacity of 65 beds. Those hospital wards are supposed to house just 65 patients. As of Thursday morning, the hospital has 14 COVID-19 patients in beds, with five of them, all unvaccinated, in STEGH’s…

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott, in a news conference on Monday morning, Jan. 3, announced that, given just how contagious the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was, schools would be shut down for at least two weeks in favour of remote learning, non-urgent procedures at all hospitals would be postponed, indoor sports…

Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore announced on Thursday, Dec. 30, that the expected return of children to schools on Monday, Jan. 3, was being delayed until Wednesday, Jan. 5, as a result of the rapid spread in COVID-19 cases involving the Omicron variant across the province. He also stated that testing…

Southwestern Public Health was reporting 110 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Friday, Dec. 24, a record high since the pandemic began. Similarly, across Ontario 9,571 new cases were confirmed Friday, another new record, nearly doubling the one set the previous day at 5,790. Southwestern is now tracking 479…

Southwestern Public Health was reporting 89 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford on Thursday morning, Dec. 23, the highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The previous day, 29 new cases had been confirmed. The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit jumped to 397 Thursday from…