News
Viral growth of Ontario, Southwestern area COVID-19 cases
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…
Read MoreSouthwestern: 89 new cases in one day
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…
Read MoreFamily confirms Ken Jones died in fire
The family of the late Ken Jones of Malahide has confirmed that he died in an early-morning house fire on Nova Scotia Line in Malahide Monday, Dec. 20. Granddaughter Kariesha Blackwood of Aylmer told the Express that her grandmother Linda only escaped by climbing out a window and down an adjacent tree. Ken and Linda’s…
Read MoreSouthwestern positivity rate at all-year high
Southwestern Public Health reported Wednesday, Dec. 22, that the positivity rate, the percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back confirming the presence of the virus in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, has reached an all-time high for this year, at 6.8 percent as of Dec. 12. That compares to a positivity rate of 4.6 percent as…
Read MoreSWPH: up to six affected by vaccine dispensing error
Southwestern Public Health, in a statement on Tuesday, Dec. 21, announced an error, supposedly a harmless one, had been made in dispensing COVID-19 vaccine at its mass-immunization clinic in St. Thomas on November 30. Up to six individuals, or about two percent of those who attended the clinic that day, might have received a dose…
Read MoreTwo more deaths, including a centenarian
Southwestern Public Health announced on Tuesday, Dec. 21, that two more residents in the Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford area, including a St. Thomas woman who was over 100 years old and an Oxford woman in her 80s, had died as a result of COVID-19. That brings the total number of fatalities in the area…
Read MoreSouthwestern records 128 new COVID cases over weekend
Southwestern Public Health on Monday, Dec. 20, was reporting 128 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 from the weekend in Elgin, St. Thomas and Oxford, or an average of just under 43 per day. The number of ongoing cases being tracked by the health unit rose to 313 Monday from 234 on Friday. The rate of…
Read MoreOne person escapes Nova Scotia Line fire
Elgin Ontario Provincial Police Constable Norm Kelso reported Monday morning, Dec. 20, that one person had escaped a fire that fully-engulfed a home on Nova Scotia Line between Springwater and Sawmill roads, but a search was being made for others who might have been home at the time. OPP and Malahide Fire responded to the…
Read MorePort Burwell GO-VAXX visit cancelled
A planned walk-in clinic aboard the GO-VAXX COVID-19 immunization bus at Port Burwell’s fire station has been cancelled, Southwestern Public Health announced on Monday morning, Dec. 20. The clinic was supposed to be held today (Monday). The health unit suggested anyone who planned to visit the bus should instead visit www.covidvaccineLM.ca to book an appointment…
Read MoreFord: new COVID-19 restrictions
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in response to the rapid spread of new confirmed COVID-19 cases through the province and the discovery of the highly-contagious Omicron variant, announced new public health restrictions to try to curb additional cases on Friday, Dec. 17. Among them, the government ordered that a maximum of 10 persons would be allowed…
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