News Headlines

STEGH has surpassed its capacity for critical care due to COVID-19

St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital, in an urgent statement issued late Friday afternoon, Nov. 12, stated the number of patients requiring critical care there was at the highest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of COVID-19 cases at STEGH was “increasing at an unprecedented rate,” it said. All 13 COVID-19 patients now…

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Fifty-eight new cases in two days

Southwestern Public Health, after being closed Thursday for Remembrance Day, on Friday, Nov. 12, reported that 58 new cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, or an average of 29 a day. On Wednesday, 22 new cases had been announced. The number of ongoing confirmed cases being tracked by the…

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Remembrance Day in Aylmer

Aylmer Police Chief Zvonko Horvat, left, and Deputy Chief Nick Novacich saluted after laying a wreath from the Aylmer Police Association during the Remembrance Day service at the town Cenotaph on Thursday, Nov. 11. A large group of Ontario Police College recruits were on parade for the event, which was well-attended by local residents. Similar…

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St. Thomas man, 56, dies after crash in Aylmer

A St. Thomas man, 56, died after a crash between a sports-utility vehicle and a transport truck in the area of Talbot and King streets in Aylmer on Tuesday night, Nov. 9, at 11:20 p.m. Aylmer Police Deputy Chief Nick Novacich said a 2005 Nissan Murano SUV was being driven east on Talbot Street East…

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Warning of renewed COVID-19 restrictions

Recent increases in the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford has led Southwestern Public Health Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock to warn of the potential return of pandemic restrictions in the region. During a news briefing on Thursday, Nov. 4, she reported that 21 new confirmed…

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Three deaths in three days; hospitalizations in double digits

Southwestern Public Health announced on Wednesday, Nov. 3, that an Elgin woman in her 70s who was confirmed as having COVID-19 had died. That’s the third death in three days in Elgin. An Aylmer man, 85, died Monday and an Elgin woman in her 80s Tuesday. The death toll for Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford…

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Herbert Hildebrandt trial, day one

The assault trial for Herbert Hildebrandt, of Malahide, began Friday, Oct. 22, with only one prosecution witness testifying before day’s end. Mr. Hildebrandt was charged with assault after allegedly pushing to the ground Jack Dykxhoorn, 84, of Malahide at the former Thompson family farm, across from the Church of God, at the north end of…

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Rising COVID counts bring warning

Southwestern Public Health Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock issued a special appeal to area residents in the face of steadily rising COVID-19 case counts, Wednesday, Oct. 13. In a statement, she said local numbers “are rising at a time when the seven-day average number of cases in Ontario is declining. “Most active cases…

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Two crash death victims named

Peter Harder, 29, of Aylmer and Neil Banman, 26, of Chatham-Kent, died after a pickup truck went into a ditch on Richmond Road between Vienna Line and Calton Line, on the boundary between Malahide and Bayham, on Saturday night, Oct. 9, at about 8:53 p.m. A third person from that truck was also badly injured…

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Two dead after crash on Richmond Road

Two persons died and a third was seriously injured after a pickup truck left Richmond Road, entered a ditch and rolled over several times, ejecting the driver and a passenger, on Saturday, Oct. 9, about 8:53 p.m. Ontario Provincial Police Acting Sergeant Ed Sanchuk, in a statement, said that speed, alcohol and lack of use…

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