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The London region broke its daily record for COVID-19 cases on Friday, reporting 638 new infections as the health unit focuses its case and contact management efforts on only the highest-risk cases.
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Amid an unprecedented fifth wave surge fueled by the ultra-contagious variant of Omicron, the Middlesex-London Health Unit will deploy its staff to handle cases occurring only in high-risk settings such as nursing homes. long-term care, retirement homes, hospitals and certain community living settings.
In a statement Friday, the health unit said the massive spike in cases and provincial changes to testing eligibility mean local public health officials “will not be notified of every new case, and every new case will not even be detected or reported”.
“COVID-19 is now spreading through the community faster than we can test or detect it. This means we need to focus our investigative efforts on cases where they can be most effective,” Acting Medical Officer of Health Alex Summers said in a statement.
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“The Omicron variant requires us to take a radically different approach to slowing transmission in our community. Maintaining physical distance, wearing a mask and limiting time spent with others will slow the rate at which it spreads.
No additional COVID-19-related deaths were reported Friday by the health unit.
The London area has set and surpassed its daily case record seven times since December 22.
No update on COVID-19 hospital admissions was provided by the London Health Sciences Center on Friday. The day before, the LHSC was caring for 25 COVID-19 patients including eight in intensive care. The number of patients is an increase of 10 from the previous week.
The province announced it will ask hospitals to disclose the number of patients admitted with COVID-19, as opposed to those who accidentally test positive during an unrelated hospital stay.
The provincial government announced changes to COVID-19 testing eligibility in Ontario on Thursday, a move that will likely affect the number of new daily cases being reported.
PCR tests will only be available to symptomatic people at increased risk of serious illness from COVID-19, Chief Medical Officer Dr Kieran Moore has said, and rapid tests are now a priority for the care sector healthcare and other high-risk environments.
Ontario reported 16,713 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, its highest one-day total since the pandemic began.
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