Ontario has broken another record in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and it is not a good one.

The province recorded 4,736 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 29 deaths.

That pushes the seven day average for daily cases to 4,208 and an average of about 21 deaths a week.

There are 1,932 pandemic patients in hospital, 659 in intensive care.

In Lambton, 26 people tested positive for COVID-19 with 119 people actively ill. There is one workplace outbreak.

Lambton’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Sudit Ranade, says the lockdown and the provincial shutdown seem to be easing the spread of COVID-19 in Lambton.

“I think it is important to add a bit of caution to that statement because we do see a few days where there are 20 or so cases and some days where we’ve got five or so cases,” he says. Ranade says the seven day average is trending lower and that is “directly due to the impact of “multiple restrictions on what people can do.”

Meantime, Ranade says Lambton County has written to the provincial government to figure out why the community was not named a hotspot and eligible for more vaccine.

“Our numbers have changed dramatically and anyone who would try to base a case based on the fact that our numbers had been high at one time, would have a harder time making that case this week,” he says. But Ranade adds they still are asking the province for clarity.

“We have pushed to have a reasonable amount of vaccination based on our population, we have pushed to have more of the supplies than we have now and we’ve also pushed for some openness and transparency about how it is decided what a hotspot is, so we have an understanding whether we did fit into that category or criteria.”

Ranade says public health has been looking around and seeing there were some postal codes were listed as hotspots when their region wasn’t. He says it is “confusing to us” because, at the time, Lambton had a large number of cases.