For the first time this week, the number of new COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County is not in the triple digits.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported 95 new infections and two additional deaths on Thursday.
The region has not seen daily case numbers below the 100 mark since Sunday when 88 infections were recorded. That was followed by two record setting days on Monday and Tuesday when new cases hit 135 and 161. The numbers eased slightly on Wednesday with 114 new cases.
With Thursday's figures, the London region has now surpassed 4,000 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with 4,038 cases total.
The latest deaths are among two men, one in his 60s and the others in his 70s, who both lived in long-term care. The death toll has risen to 116 with 13 deaths reported since the start of the year.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) confirmed a new outbreak at Victoria Hospital. Less than five patients and less than five staff members have tested positive for the virus on B41 Antenatal unit. The south London hospital now has three units dealing with outbreaks. There have been no deaths linked to any of the outbreaks.
Currently, there are 41 inpatients with COVID-19 under the care of the LHSC, including 12 listed in the critical care unit. Thirty-one staff members have also tested positive, up from Wednesday.
Eight local long-term care and retirement homes and two area schools continue to report outbreaks.
The number of recoveries rose by 57 over the past 24 hours for a total of 2,916 resolved cases.
London and Middlesex currently have 1,006 active cases.
Southwestern Public Health is reporting another five deaths in Elgin and Oxford counties. The latest deaths bring that region's death toll up to 28. The latest deaths include three more people at Maple Manor Nursing home in Tillsonburg and one person at PeopleCare Tavistock. Both long-term care facilities are dealing with an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. At Maple Manor, 57 residents and 41 staff have contracted the virus. At PeopleCare, there are 34 residents and 29 staff members sick.
There were 21 new COVID-19 cases confirmed Thursday for a total of 1,610 since last March in the two counties. Sixty-seven more people recovered for the virus, increasing the number of resolved cases to 1,226. Active cases stand at 356 across the region.
Ontario had not only a record number of new daily COVID-19 cases, but a record number of deaths linked to the virus on Thursday.
Public Health officials said there were 3,519 infections across the province over the last 24 hours. The highest number of new cases were in Toronto (891), Peel (568), York Region (457), Windsor-Essex (208), Waterloo (175), and Durham (174).
Ontario’s total number of cases now stands at 204,145.
Eighty-nine more people died from the virus across the province, surpassing the previous record of 86 deaths in a single-day set on April 30. The province’s epidemiology report indicates 43 of Thursday's deaths were among people living in long-term care homes.
The COVID-19 death toll in Ontario is now 4,856.
Recoveries are up to 172,571.
Hospitalizations from the virus continue to climb, with a record 1,472 people admitted. Of those, 363 are in the intensive care unit and 242 are on ventilators
Testing has ramped back up since the holidays, with more than 65,700 tests processed over the past 24 hours.
Ontario’s positivity rate stands at 6.1 per cent.