New record for Waterloo Region: 270 COVID-19 cases reported Friday

KITCHENER -

Waterloo Region has reached a new COVID-19 milestone.

Public Health reported 270 new infections on Friday, surpassing the previous record of 232 set the day before.

Friday's update includes 268 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, with the remaining two added to previous days.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region now stands at 23,043. Of those, 21,518 people are now considered recovered. The death toll remains unchanged at 312.

Active infections rose by 119 on Friday, now sitting at 1,168.

While the number of new cases has increased, the same can't be said for hospitalizations.

A total of 21 people are receiving treatment for COVID-19 in area hospitals, two more than were reported on Thursday. Six people are currently in the ICU.

Outbreaks dropped by four to 17. The most recent outbreaks listed on the region's dashboard are at Hillcrest Public School with a total of two cases, and four cases at Chartwell Elmira Long Term Care Residence.

Here's a breakdown of variants of concern in the region:

• 3,126 have been identified as the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant
• 21 have been identified as the Beta (B.1.351) variant
• 98 have been identified as the Gamma (P.1) variant
• 4,009 have been identified as the Delta (B.1.617) variant
• 44 have been identified as the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant

COVID-19 CASES IN ONTARIO AND LOCAL REACTION

The province is also reporting a record number of new infections.

Officials say 9,571 new cases were added Friday, surpassing Thursday's record-breaking total of 5,790.

Ontario's rolling seven-day average is now 4,922, up from 1,914 at this point last week.

MORE: Ontario breaks daily COVID-19 record again with more than 9,500 new cases

Of the new infections reported Friday, 2,146 involved people who are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or their vaccination status is not known. The remaining 7,425 cases are in people who have had two or more doses.

With testing capacity stretched, experts say the number of infections are much than has already been reported.

"We know that those huge numbers of cases are likely an underestimate and don’t reflect the true burden of COVID-19 in the community," said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist.

The Ministry of Health is warning the surge will likely continue in the coming days and weeks.

So far, they say they're not seeing a corresponding increase in hospitalizations and intensive care admissions.

"They are staying stable right now, but we're still in that in between period where we would see those higher numbers and case counts and where we would start to see hospitalization start going up," said Dr. Dale Kalina, another infectious disease specialist.

People are being urged to get their booster shot and there is demand for third doses.

"You'll see appointments fly," said Lilian Toma, the creator and manager of Waterloo Vaccine Tracker. "Whenever we post things on our Twitter feed there will be hundreds of appointments, and in less than half an hour they're all gone."

Waterloo Vaccine Tracker finds available appointments and shares that information online.

"When we get those messages and those tweets from people saying that the social media sites have helped them with booking their appointment, and being so thankful for that, it's amazing."

Outside the vaccine clinic at Bingemans in Kitchener, booster shots are bringing some hope on Christmas Eve.

"We thought not too many people wanted to do it just before Christmas, but that's inaccurate. There's a lot of people here," said one person.

"It's an early Christmas present," said another. "Let me say I'm grateful to all the volunteers who are doing this for our community."

The Region of Waterloo won't be releasing another COVID-19 update until Monday.