63 patients with COVID-19 in London hospitals Wednesday, 10 in critical care

Hospitalizations continue to climb in the London area as London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) reported63 patients with COVID-19, including 10 in critical care.

The number of patients with the virus increased by four from the previous day.

"About 93 per cent of our overallmedical surgical beds are occupied," said Dr. Adam Dukelow, chief medial officer for the LHSC.

"We've had to change a number of wards or areas of the hospital,so what may have taken care of surgical patients in the past have now been converted over to what we call 'hot zones,' where we look after patients thatare affected by COVID."

The LHSC saidthere are five or fewer patient with COVID-19 in the Children's Hospital and no patients in Paediatric Critical Care.

There are now 261 staff who havetested positive for the virus, a jump of 51 from Tuesday. The hospital network says those who have tested positive are in isolation.

Provincewide, there are now 2,081 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, including 288 patients in intensive care units.

All non-urgentsurgeries have been paused across Ontario as of Wednesday, including those at London hospitals.

Unvaccinated patients more likely to be hospitalized

According to data from the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), over 45 per cent of those who have been hospitalized in the past six weeks were unvaccinated. It's a stark contrast compared to total recent number ofCOVID-19 cases, which show just over 15 per cent are unvaccinated.

Those who have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or who aren't fully protected make up just over seven per cent of recent hospitalizations.

There hasn't been a COVID-related death reported in the region since Dec. 30. There have been 259 people who have died with COVID-19 in Middlesex-London since the pandemic began.

Triple-digit case counts continue for Middlesex-London

The MLHU posted 307 new COVID-19 cases for the region on Wednesday, a significant drop as the seven-day rolling average for daily casessits at 494.

There were 402 recoveries posted Wednesday, with 4,134 active cases in the region, though the actual number of active infections in the region is likely much higher as the health unit transitioned to only test people in higher risk situations.

Across Ontario, there were 11,582 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.