London area’s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 30 as retirement homes hit hard

Author of the article:

Randy Richmond

Publishing date:

20 hours ago • 1 minute read

Nine vehicles were lined up at the 11:00 a.m. opening of the COVID-19 assessment centre at the Carling Heights Optimist Community Centre in London on Friday April 24, 2020. Derek Ruttan/The London Free Press/Postmedia Network

Article content

The number of deaths in retirement homes in London and surrounding Middlesex County inched up over the weekend, another sign of the impact of COVID-19 on the elderly.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit had counted one death at a retirement home before the weekend, but that number jumped to four by Sunday afternoon.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

London area’s COVID-19 death toll surpasses 30 as retirement homes hit hard Back to video

“It is a higher risk population so it’s been something we’ve been watching for some time. It’s not surprising this is happening now but of course every death is tragic. It is concerning,” Dr. Chris Mackie, medical officer of health for the region, said Sunday.

Overall, the death toll from COVID-19 in the London area rose by five to 31 over the weekend, according to health unit figures.

One of those deaths was in a long-term care facility.

“Retirement homes and mostly long-term care are really driving up the number of cases right now,” Mackie said. Slightly more than half the cases come from long-term care facilities, he said.

The total number of cases rose from 357 Friday to 372 by Sunday at noon.

The daily increase in cases is far below the peaks of 25 or so new cases a day that the area had been seeing, Mackie said.

“The numbers have been flat here. But we are linked in intimately with the rest of the province. As long as there are numbers that are relatively high across the province, which there are right now, we will keep getting cases here,” he said.