London sees double-digit COVID-19 cases Wednesday

The Middlesex London Health Unit (MLHU) is reporting double-digit coronavirus cases for the first time in nearly a week, as 12 people tested positive Wednesday.

Three of the new cases reported by the MLHU are individuals under the age of 19, continuing the trend of younger people becoming infected with the virus.

"We haven't linked any additional exposures to any school environment, [including] post-secondary, secondary or primary," said Dr. Alex Summers, the associate medical officer of health with the MLHU on Wednesday afternoon. 

"These are folks that are in that student age, but there are not, as of yet, any exposures identified." 

Three other cases involve people in their 20s. One of those cases, Summers said, is linked to one of the outbreaks among Western University students.

"We're still determining how many cases are associated with those outbreaks, but the rate of increase is slowing down, which is encouraging news," said Summers. 

Students who refused test comply with quarantine

On Tuesday, the health unit said it knew of two Western students who were "high risk probable cases," who had refused to get tested but were linked to one of two community outbreaks.

"Often there are multitudes of reasons why people are hesitant to get tested and we try to provide support to make sure that that can happen," said Summers on Wednesday.

"What we prioritize is making sure that people are quarantined or isolated if they develop symptoms, and certainly all individuals who have been identified as high risk contacts have been quarantined," he assured, saying that self-isolation is critical to stopping further spread of the virus.  

Ontario reported another 335 cases of COVID-19, a drop in numbers compared to earlier in the week when the case count pass the 400 mark.  

Testing has continued to cause problems this week for people travelling to the London assessment centres where lines went for blocks along residential streets. The MLHU said 416 people were tested at the Carling site Tuesday and 389 at Oakridge.

Lineups were considerably shorter Wednesday at both sites. For the first time, Oakridge staff handed out appointment times to people in line and asking them to return closer to their slot.