27 people with COVID-19 in ICU in Waterloo Region

The Region of Waterloo is reporting 148 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in the region, according to its Thursday dashboard update. That's up 17 from Wednesday.

Twenty-seven people are receiving care in an intensive case unit, a six-person increase from Wednesday. That represents the most people in ICU the region has seen since hospitals were rocked by the Delta wave in May.

Meanwhile the number of active cases in the region continues to fall, with 3,603 active cases reported Thursday. That's down 240 from Wednesday.

No new deaths were reported Wednesday, along with no new outbreaks. In fact, the number of active outbreaks in the region fell by one to 75. Thirty-nine of those are in long-term care or retirement homes and 27 are in congregate settings.

Thursday's dashboard update shows the number of people in hospital and in ICU over time in Waterloo Region.Thursday's dashboard update shows the number of people in hospital and in ICU over time in Waterloo Region. (Region of Waterloo)

The region logged 347 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, with 231 coming from the last day and the remaining 116 added from previous dates as a result of a data cleanup.

In total, the Region of Waterloo has reported 36,137 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, of those 31,866 are now considered resolved. A total of 328 people have died.

The region's variant of concern breakdown, including resolved cases, is as follows:

• 3,131 are the Alpha variant
• 21 are the Beta variant
• 98 are the Gamma variant
• 4,132 Delta variant
• 373 Omicron variant

As of Thursday’s update, a total of 1,198,919 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the region, 254,488 of those are third doses.

Of the population aged five and up, 87.6 per cent are considered fully-vaccinated with two doses, 81.8 have received one shot.

Provincial picture

Health officials are reporting 4,061 people across Ontario are in hospital with COVID-19, a decrease of 71 patients since Wednesday.

There are 594 people in intensive care, five fewer patients than on Wednesday.

The province also reported that of those hospitalized, 55 per cent are seeking care due to COVID-19, while the remaining 45 per cent were admitted to the hospital for unrelated reasons and are now testing positive for the virus.

In intensive care, 81 per cent of patients are admitted primarily for COVID-19, while the remaining 19 per cent are testing positive but are being treated for a separate issue. The Regional of Waterloo does not provide a similar breakdown.

With files from CTV Toronto