COVID-19: LHSC reports 132 inpatients, MLHU reports 2 deaths

Jump to: Hospitalizations – Cases and testing – Outbreaks – Vaccinations – Ontario – Elgin and Oxford – Huron and Perth – Sarnia and Lambton

---

After three consecutive days of record-high figures, the London Health Sciences Centre is reporting a small drop in the number of COVID-19 inpatients in its care.

On Friday, LHSC said it was caring for 132 COVID-19 inpatients, down from 135 the day before.

Meanwhile, the Middlesex-London Health Unit is reporting two more COVID-19-related deaths in the region: a woman in her 70s who was fully vaccinated and a man in his 60s who was unvaccinated. Neither were associated with a long-term care or retirement home.

The MLHU also reported 253 cases Friday.

Hospitalizations

As noted, LHSC is caring for 132 inpatients with COVID-19, down from 135 Thursday but up from 78 last Friday.

Of those, 21 are in adult critical case, down from 24 the day before but up from 12 a week ago.

Six of the 132 are in Children’s Hospital, down from eight Thursday, with five or fewer in pediatric critical care. Last Friday, LHSC reported five or fewer inpatients with COVID-19 in Children’s Hospital and zero in pediatric critical care.

Of the 132 patients, 78 are being treated for COVID-19 while 54 others in hospital have incidental COVID-19 infections (meaning they were admitted for another reason). On Thursday, those figures were 74 and 61, respectively. This data was not available last week.

Among staff, there are 511 cases of COVID-19, up from 509 Thursday but still lower than the peak of 512 reported Wednesday. A week ago, LHSC was reporting 438 active cases among staff.

There are currently active outbreaks at University Hospital in 7IP Clinical Neurosciences – 204, 210, 300 wing and A9 Inpatients 100 and 200 Corridors as well as at Victoria Hospital’s B7-200 adult psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU).

The outbreak in A9 Inpatients 100 and 200 Corridors at UH involves 14 confirmed patient cases and 10 confirmed staff cases. The outbreak at 7IP Clinical Neurosciences involves 18 confirmed patient cases and five or fewer confirmed staff cases with another 16 potential staff cases.

The lone outbreak at Victoria Hospital involves seven patient cases and five or fewer confirmed cases among staff with another 13 potential staff cases.

St. Joseph’s Health Care London is no longer differentiating between outbreak and non-outbreak cases. It’s reporting a total of 77 cases among patients or residents, unchanged from Thursday and up from 25 last Friday, as well as 132 cases among health-care workers, up from 123 Thursday and 70 last week.

Of the 77 patient or resident cases reported Friday, 24 are at Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, 52 are at Parkwood Institute Main Building and one is at Parkwood Institute Mental Health Care Building.

St. Joseph’s is currently reporting outbreaks in SM1, MV5 and MV1 at Mount Hope and in 3AE, 3KE, 4BE, 4AE, 4AN, 2Perth, GRU and MSK at Parkwood Institute Main Building.

Cases and testing

The MLHU reported 253 cases on Friday and two deaths involving a woman in her 70s and man in his 60s. Neither case was associated with a long-term care or retirement home. The woman was vaccinated and the man was unvaccinated.

Due to changes in eligibility for PCR testing, daily case counts are no longer considered a fully reliable reflection of COVID-19 activity in the region.

In total, there have been 25,493 confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic, including 3,132 active cases (a decrease of 516), 22,094 resolved cases (an increase of 780) and 267 deaths (an increase of two).

The test positivity rate for the week of Jan. 2 was 24.0 per cent, down from 28.3 per cent the week of Dec. 26, 2021.

The Thames Valley Family Health Team announced Friday that, effective immediately, it would no longer provide rapid tests for school-aged children at its site at 105-460 Springbank Dr.

Outbreaks

As of Friday, outbreaks are active at the following long-term care homes, retirement homes or hospitals:

• Arbor Trace Alzheimer’s Special Care Centre, facility-wide, declared Jan. 4
• Babcock Community Care Centre, facility-wide, declared Dec. 31
• Chartwell London, Magnolia and Pinebrook areas, declared Dec. 18
• Chartwell Parkhill, Countryside Unit, declared Jan. 1
• Country Terrace, Nottinghill Unit, declared Dec. 28
• Dearness Home, in 5E, 5W, 4E, Oakdale and 2W, declared Dec. 29
• Dorchester Terrace, facility-wide, declared Jan. 6
• Earls Court Village, first and third floors, declared Jan. 2
• Elmwood Place, facility-wide, declared Dec. 27
• Extendicare, first, second and third floors, declared Dec. 24
• Henley Place LTC Residence, facility-wide, declared Dec. 29
• Highview Residence – Chapin House, facility-wide, declared Jan. 7
• Kensington Village, first and second floors, declared Jan. 4
• Kensington Village Retirement, Highbury area, declared Jan. 4
• LHSC – University Hospital, 7IP Neurosciences, declared Jan. 1
• LHSC – University Hospital, A9 Inpatient – 100 and 200 Corridors, declared Jan. 11
• LHSC – Victoria Hospital, PICU, declared Dec. 31
• Manor Village at London, 4 West and 4 Centre, declared Jan. 10
• McCormick Home, Evergreen unit, declared Dec. 14
• McGarrell Place, Kingsmill and Lawson, declared Jan. 1
• Meadow Park Care Centre, facility-wide, declared Jan. 1
• Middlesex Terrace, third floor, declared Dec. 26
• Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, SM1, MV5 and MV1, declared Dec. 25
• Oakcrossing Retirement Living, facility-wide, declared Jan. 4
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 2 Perth, declared Jan. 5
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 3 Kent/Essex, declared Dec. 31
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 3A-East, declared Dec. 23
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 4 Bruce Elgin, declared Jan. 3
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 4AE/4AN, declared Jan. 9
• Parkwood Institute Main Building, 5AN and 5AE, declared Jan. 9
• Strathmere Lodge, facility-wide, declared Jan. 6
• Village of Glendale Crossing, facility-wide, Lambeth, declared Dec. 25
• Westmount Gardens, Daisy Unit, declared Jan. 3

An outbreak at Peoplecare Oak Crossing, in White Pine and Red Oak, declared Dec. 31, described only as “respiratory unknown” is no longer listed among COVID-19 institutional outbreaks.

There are no active outbreaks at elementary or secondary schools, child-care or early years centres or post-secondary institutions in the MLHU’s jurisdiction as of Friday.

Vaccinations

With a return to in-person learning scheduled for Monday, Loblaws announced that its Real Canadian Superstore locations at Oxford and Gammage streets and Oxford Street and Hyde Park Road in London will be among those hosting vaccine clinics for educators and other school staff from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, by phone appointment only. Attendees will need to provide their board ID or proof of employer.

The province’s GO-Vaxx mobile vaccination clinic will also return to London on Jan. 16, this time stopping at the new East Lions Community Centre from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Appointments will be required and can be made online or over the phone at 1-833-943-3900.

As of Jan. 8, 88.6 per cent of those aged five and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, up from 88 per cent a week prior, while 82.7 per cent have had two doses, up from 82.1 per cent a week prior.

The percentage of people who’ve received third doses climbed to 31.8 per cent as of Jan. 8 from 25.4 per cent as of Jan. 1. Note that those under 18 are not currently eligible for a third dose.

More than 68 per cent of those aged 70 and older have had a third dose as of Jan. 8.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit says individuals who are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should consider themselves to be positive for COVID-19 and self-isolate.

The health unit has provided information on what to do if you develop symptoms, test positive on a rapid test or PCR test or have been exposed to someone who has tested positive.

Trending Stories

• 

  
  COVID-19 vaccines still mandatory for Canadian cross-border truckers, feds say

• 

  
  Canada in for ‘intense’ weeks of Omicron infections, hospitalization surges: data

Health unit data shows that since Dec. 3, 39.8 per cent of hospitalized cases have involved people who were unvaccinated and 56.63 per cent involved fully vaccinated individuals in that same timeframe. The rest involve those who were partially vaccinated. Note that unvaccinated residents make up only 11.4 per cent of the region’s five-and-older population as of Jan. 8.

Of the 15 deaths reported in the past six weeks, eight involved fully vaccinated individuals and seven involved unvaccinated individuals.

On the health unit’s website, residents can find information on pop-up clinics, mass vaccination clinics and pharmacies, as well as guidance for anyone vaccinated outside of the province or country, transportation support for those in need and more.

Ontario

Ontario reported 3,814 people in hospital with COVID on Friday, up by 184 since the day prior.

Of those, about 53 per cent were admitted because of the virus and 47 per cent were incidental infections admitted for other reasons.

There are 527 people in ICUs, which is up by 27 from the previous day. Around 80 per cent of those in intensive care were admitted because of COVID, while around 20 per cent were admitted for other reasons.

Ontario also reported 10,964 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, though that is an underestimate of the true widespread transmission of the virus due to recent testing restrictions.

The province also added 41 deaths from the past month and one death from more than a month ago.

Elgin and Oxford

Southwestern Public Health reported one death Friday, involving a woman in her 80s tied to an outbreak at Valleyview Home.

SWPH reported one death Thursday, four deaths Wednesday and three on Tuesday. Of those, five were tied to long-term care homes.

SWPH reported 27 hospitalizations on Friday, up from 25 on Thursday and 17 a week ago. There were seven cases in the ICU, a decrease of one from the day before but up from the three cases in ICU reported last Friday.

The test positivity rate for the week of Jan. 2 was 19.5 per cent, down from 24.8 per cent during the week of Dec. 26.

As for cases, SWPH is reporting:

• 8,942 cases (an increase of 118, with seven removed due to data cleanup)
• 1,129 active cases (a decrease of 44)
• 7,685 resolved cases (an increase of 154; note that SWPH clears all cases after 10 days regardless of outcome)
• 128 deaths (an increase of one)
  

There are active outbreaks at the following long-term homes, retirement homes and hospitals:

• Valleyview Nursing Home, St. Thomas, declared Dec. 23 and involving 16 resident cases, 24 staff cases and one death
• Woodingford Lodge, Woodstock, declared Dec. 28 and involving 13 resident cases, 15 staff cases and one death
• Tillsonburg Retirement Residence – Tillsonburg, declared Dec. 29 and involving three resident cases
• Chartwell Oxford Gardens, Woodstock, declared Dec. 30 and involving 12 resident cases and four staff cases
• Caressant Care Bonnie Place Retirement Home, St. Thomas, declared Dec. 30 and involving 16 resident cases, 11 staff cases, one death and one case under investigation
• Caressant Care Bonnie Place Nursing Home, St. Thomas, declared Dec. 30 and involving 12 resident cases and eight staff cases
• Elgin Manor, St. Thomas, declared Dec. 31 and involving four resident cases and two staff cases
• Extendicare, Port Stanley, declared Jan. 2 and involving nine resident cases and 11 staff cases
• Terrace Lodge, Aylmer, declared Jan. 2 and involving 10 resident cases, three staff cases and one death
• Secord Trails, Ingersoll, declared Jan. 2 and involving 36 resident cases, 16 staff cases and two deaths
• Chartwell Aylmer, Aylmer, declared Jan. 2 and involving five resident cases and six staff cases
• Alexandra Hospital, Ingersoll, declared Jan. 3 and involving nine resident cases and three staff cases
• Caressant Care Nursing Home – Woodstock, declared Jan. 3 and involving one resident case and 12 staff cases
• Maples Nursing Home – Tavistock, declared Jan. 7, involving two resident cases and 11 staff cases
• St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital – St. Thomas, declared Jan. 7, involving four resident cases and three staff cases
• Aches Transitional Bed Program, Woodstock, declared Jan. 10 and involving four staff cases
• Woodingford Lodge, Tillsonburg, declared Jan. 11 and involving three staff cases
• Woodingford Lodge, Ingersoll, declared Jan. 12 and involving three staff cases
• Metcalfe Gardens Retirement Home, St. Thomas, declared Jan. 13 and involving one resident case and one staff case

As of Jan. 12, 76.7 per cent of those aged five and older in the region had received two doses of the vaccine, while 81.8 per cent have had at least one dose.

Further information on where and how to get vaccinated can be found on the health unit’s website.

The health unit encouraged people to join its Same-Day Vaccination List, which offers any leftover doses due to cancellations or no-shows.

Huron and Perth

On Friday, Huron Perth Public Health reported nine people were in hospital with COVID-19, the same as Thursday and up from six on Wednesday.

Of those, seven are considered to be active cases.

The number of health-care workers with active COVID-19 infections climbed to 104, up from 95 Thursday and 21 a week ago.

For the week of Jan. 2, the test positivity rate was 11 per cent, from 21.2 per cent for the week of Dec. 26.

In total, HPPH reported on Wednesday:

• 4,438 total cases (an increase of 44)
• 1,300 active cases (an increase of 38)
• 3,060 recoveries (an increase of six)
• 78 deaths to date (unchanged)

The most recent deaths were reported on Tuesday when two deaths were added to the tally, no further details were provided.

There are 21 active outbreaks reported by HPPH, including 10 at long-term care or retirement homes:

• Braemar Nursing Home, North Huron, declared Jan. 12 and involving two residents and four staff cases
• Hillside Manor, Perth East, declared Dec. 31 and involving four staff cases
• Kingsway Lodge, St. Marys, declared Jan. 3 and involving 10 resident cases and 14 staff cases
• Knollcrest Lodge, Perth East, declared Jan. 12 and one resident case and involving three staff cases
• Queensway Nursing home, Bluewater, declared Dec. 31 and involving one resident case and one staff case
• Caressant Care Retirement Home, North Perth, declared Jan. 2 and involving two resident case and two staff cases
• Exeter Villa, South Huron, declared Jan. 2 and involving seven resident cases and 12 staff cases
• Goderich Place, Goderich, declared Jan. 8 and involving one resident case and three staff cases
• Maplewood Manor Retirement Home, Huron East, declared Dec. 30 and involving one resident case and four staff cases
• Seaforth Manor Retirement Home, Huron East, declared Jan. 2 and involving three resident cases and three staff cases

HPPH is also reporting an outbreak at Stratford General Hospital, declared Jan. 7, involving one patient and four staff members.

HPPH is reporting 10 outbreaks at congregate living settings but no further details were provided.

As of Jan. 10, 83.3 per cent of residents aged five and older have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose while 78.4 per cent are fully vaccinated. Third-dose coverage stands at 38.6 per cent of those five and older, though those under the age of 18 are not eligible for a third dose.

Information on how and where to get a vaccine can be found on the health unit’s website.

Sarnia and Lambton

Bluewater Health reported 41 patients in hospital with confirmed COVID-19, up from 35 on Thursday and 29 a week ago.

Lambton Public Health is reporting the average ICU occupancy was at 95 per cent for the week of Jan. 2, up from 80 per cent for the week of Dec. 26.

The test positivity rate for the week of Jan. 2 was 28.5 per cent, down from 31.2 per cent for the week of Dec. 26.

On Friday, Lambton Public Health reported:

• 7,568 total cases (an increase of 141)
• 800 active cases (a decrease of 70)
• 6,674 resolved cases (an increase of 210)
• 94 deaths to date (an increase of one)

No further details were provided about the death reported Friday.

LPH reported 15 active outbreaks as of Friday, including at the following congregate living facilities:

• Christian Horizons in Sarnia, declared Jan. 10 and involving fewer than five resident cases and fewer than five staff/caregiver cases
• Lambton County Developmental Services in Wyoming, declared Jan. 9 and involving fewer than five resident cases and fewer than five staff/caregiver cases
• Huron House Boys Home in Brights Grove, declared Jan. 8 and involving fewer than five residents and five staff/caregivers
• Community Living Sarnia-Lambton in Sarnia, declared Jan. 7 and involving fewer than five residents and fewer than five staff/caregivers
• St. Francis Advocates in Petrolia, declared Jan. 7 and involving fewer than five residents and fewer than five staff/caregivers
• Community Living Sarnia-Lambton in Sarnia, declared Jan. 6 and involving fewer than five residents and fewer than five staff/caregivers

There are outbreaks at the following long-term care and retirement homes:

• Watford Quality Care in Watford, declared Jan. 5 and involving fewer than five resident cases and fewer than five staff cases
• Trillium Villa in Sarnia, declared Jan. 3 and involving 26 residents and 26 staff/caregivers
• Marshall Gowland Manor in Sarnia, declared Jan. 1 and involving fewer than five residents and 14 staff/caregivers
• Afton Park Place in Sarnia, declared Dec. 31 and involving fewer than five residents and 11 staff/caregivers
• Sumac Lodge in Sarnia, declared Dec. 31 and involving 24 resident cases and 18 cases among staff/caregivers
• Fiddick’s Nursing Home in Petrolia, declared Dec. 30 and involving 11 residents and 16 staff/caregivers

Outbreaks have also been reported at a jail and hospital. The outbreak at Sarnia Jail in Sarnia was declared Jan. 8 and involves 13 inmates and fewer than five staff members. The outbreak at Bluewater Health in Sarnia was declared Jan. 7 and involves six patients and six staff members.

There is also an outbreak at an unidentified workplace, declared Jan. 11 involving three cases.

Eighty-one per cent of area residents age five and older have had at least one dose of vaccine while 77 per cent have had two doses. Thirty-four per cent have had a third dose, health unit data shows. Note that those under 18 are not currently eligible for a third dose.

Residents can book and re-book COVID-19 vaccine appointments or find information on vaccine availability at pharmacies using the health unit’s registration page. People can also contact the vaccine call centre at 226-254-8222.

Those who are able to get vaccinated on short notice are encouraged to sign up for Lambton Public Health’s daily Vaccine Standby List.

— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues