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The health unit for the Oxford and Elgin counties welcomed a sharp drop in the number of active COVID-19 cases in its region.
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With 13 new cases announced in Wednesday’s update – the fewest since the beginning of November – and 46 recoveries, the active case count plummeted from 204 to 170, the health unit reported.
There was also a single case removed by public health Wednesday from the Southwestern public health figures.
There have been 5,382 cumulative confirmed cases of the virus and 5,114 recoveries in the region since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. There have also been 98 COVID-related deaths during the course of the pandemic, including a dozen since the beginning of October.
St. Thomas still had the most active cases in the region with 46 while Woodstock had 28 and Tillsonburg had 26.
The case count also remained high in the smaller Elgin County town of Aylmer, with 21.
Aylmer, the least vaccinated jurisdiction in Ontario, is one of the eight targeted municipalities in the Southwestern public health region being hit with reduced capacity limits Thursday in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19 that has pushed active infections to the highest level in almost a year.
The health unit announced the new measures Monday after warning for more than a week that it needed to take steps to curb an increase in cases that has filled hospital beds, forcing St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital to transfer COVID patients to other hospitals.
The new rules, which also apply to Bayham, Blandford-Blenheim, Malahide, Norwich, South-West Oxford, Tillsonburg and West Elgin, effectively reduce capacity limits in event spaces, restaurants and bars, personal care services, sports and recreation facilities, and entertainment venues to 50 per cent.
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The health unit’s letter of instruction also reduces gathering limits for weddings, funerals and religious services where proof of vaccination is required to enter to 50 per cent capacity.
Almost 24 per cent of active cases in the region were reported in patients 19 and younger. In total, about 65 per cent of active cases were reported in residents younger than 50. The leading cause of transmission remained close contact, although the cause of transmission was unknown in 21 of the cases.
The number of local patients hospitalized with COVID-19 remained 12, including three in intensive care.
The two institutional outbreaks declared in November – an eight-resident, two-staff flare-up at the Aylmer Retirement Residence and a three-staff, one resident upsurge at Caressant Care Bonnie Place in St. Thomas – were still active.
As of Nov. 30, 85 per cent of area residents 12 and older had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 82.7 per cent had been administered two doses. For residents five and older, the vaccination coverage rates dropped to 77.9 per cent with one dose and 75.3 per cent with two.