There were six new confirmed cases Wednesday of COVID-19 in the Southwestern public health region.

Wednesday’s new cases bring the cumulative confirmed total to 254. There are 31 active cases while 218 people have recovered. There were no new recoveries reported Wednesday.

Woodstock now has three ongoing cases, St. Thomas and Bayham have six, and Aylmer has 16.

Five of Wednesday’s new cases were in Aylmer while the other new case was in Bayham. A case previously reported as located in East Zorra-Tavistock is now included in Woodstock’s three cases.

As part of Southwestern public health’s new data dashboard, the unit is now reporting exposure on current cases. Where the exposure occurred in nine of the current cases is unknown, while the health unit reported five people contracted the virus through close contact, three through their workplace and one through travel.

The health unit has also added a new tool showing the prevalence of symptoms in confirmed cases. The three most common symptoms are cough (44 per cent of cases), fever (36 per cent of cases), and fatigue and headache (33 per cent of cases each).

More than 90 per cent of all confirmed cases in the region have not been hospitalized, while five per cent were in hospital and four per cent were in the intensive care unit.

About 0.5 per cent of tests are now coming back positive for the virus, down from a high of 5.3 per cent in March and still reduced from a spike of nearly two per cent positivity in late July.