Lambton’s Medical Officer of Health calls the lower number of COVID-19 cases Thursday “a blip.”

Lambton had a reprieve from double digit increase in the number of people testing positive for the virus for the second day in a row as the province records 89 deaths – the most in a single day since the pandemic began.

Statistics show just five new COVID-19 cases in Lambton Thursday. Officials report 231 people actively ill – down 58, and 63 more people recovered.

“The big picture issue is look at the trends, not the day-to-day and you know, I would expect even tomorrow (Friday) that they would have higher numbers and so I would consider it a blip rather than anything significant,” says Dr. Sudit Ranade adding he’s still concerned about the trends.

“We are at a high incidence rate… one that puts us high in the province currently, but also one that in the earlier days of the Response Framework would have really put us into severe restrictions…so these are concerning numbers, definitely.”

There are still seven long term care outbreaks, one at Village on the St. Clair in Sarnia with 1 resident case and 5 staff cases. Ranade says most of those outbreaks have not grown in size since the first cases were detected.

The province is reporting 3,519 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday with 65,800 tests being completed. Provincial statistics say 89 people died in Ontario of COVID-19.

Health Minister Christine Elliott added there have now been 72,630 vaccines administered in Ontario.