Decline in COVID-19 patients at LHSC, two new deaths

FILE - James Robson, a biomedical engineering graduate student, holds a swab and specimen vial in the new COVID-19, on-campus testing lab, Thursday, July 23, 2020, at Boston University in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is reporting a drop in the number of COVID-19 inpatients in hospital for a second day, while the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) is reporting two new deaths linked to the illness.

LHSC says it is caring for 136 inpatients with COVID-19, down from to 149 on Tuesday and 155 on Monday.

There are 26 patients in the Intensive Care Unit and five or fewer at Children's Hospital and in pediatric Critical Care.

Of those with COVID-19 at LHSC, 84 are being treated for COVID-19 while 52 are being treated for other issues but have also tested positive.

The number of COVID-positive staff is at 208 and there are seven active outbreaks at LHSC.

At St. Joseph's Health Care, the number of workers who are positive has risen to 76, while the number of positive patients/residents held steady at 12. An outbreak at Parkwood Institute is ongoing.

The MLHU is reporting two new COVID-19-related deaths, after reporting five on Tuesday.

The new deaths are a man in his 70s and a woman in her 90s, neither was associated with a long-term care or retirement home.

The region has now seen a total of 307 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The number of tests being done in the region has dropped to its lowest since mid-August of 2021.

For the week ending Jan. 29, 5,385 people were tested in Middlesex-London, with a percent positivity of 18.9 percent compared to the provincial rate of 14.6 percent. Positivity has been declining steadily since late December.

REGIONAL COVID-19 COUNTS

Here are the most recently available lab-confirmed COVID-19 case counts from local public health authorities, though testing changes make these an underestimate of actual cases:

Ontario health officials report fewer than 3,000 people in hospital with COVID-19 and 72 more deaths across the province.