18 COVID-19 cases added in Waterloo Region on Wednesday as hospitalizations decline
Health officials in Waterloo Region reported 18 new COVID-19 cases in Wednesday's update as hospitalizations drop.
Of the 18 new cases, 16 are linked to the past 24 hours, while two are from previous reporting periods.
The latest confirmed infections bring Waterloo Region's total caseload to 18,320, including 17,916 resolved cases, 114 active infections and 282 deaths.
Hospitalizations dropped by four in the past day, down from 17 to 13. Of those, 11 people are receiving treatment in area intensive care units.
One more outbreak was declared in the region, with a total of eight COVID-19 outbreaks now considered active.
In Wednesday's report, another 93 infections were confirmed as variant of concern cases, with 89 identified as the Delta variant. Waterloo Region has confirmed 4,672 variant of concern infections since the pandemic began.
Waterloo Region's variant breakdown is as follows:
- 3,122 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
- 21 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred to as B.1.315
- 96 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
- 1,172 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
- 261 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
Meanwhile, health partners in the area put another 4,567 vaccine jabs into arms on Tuesday. Across Waterloo Region, 749,124 vaccine doses have been administered.
More than 82.5 per cent of residents 12 and older have now received at least one dose, while 67.52 per cent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated.
On Wednesday, 158 COVID-19 cases and four deaths were confirmed across Ontario.
The seven-day rolling average of daily COVID-19 cases now stands at about 160, up from 155 the previous week.
There have been 549,734 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 identified in the province since the pandemic began.
With files from CTV Toronto.
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