KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials reported another 44 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the number of active cases and outbreaks also rose.
It's the fourth time in the last five days that the number of new cases has been over 30.
There have now been a total of 2,436 confirmed cases in the region, up from the 2,392 cases that public health officials reported on Monday. That number includes 2,085 resolved cases—a number that rose by 24 on Tuesday—and 121 deaths.
That leaves 230 active cases of COVID-19 in the region, a number that's grown significantly in the last couple months. At the start of September, for example, there were just 42 active cases in the region.
Five of the region's active cases are currently in hospital.
Public health officials also declared four new outbreaks on Tuesday, while one of the active outbreaks ended.
Two congregate settings each reported one case, while a workplace characterized as "trades and related services" on the region's online COVID-19 dashboard reported two cases.
The region also updated the dashboard to show the outbreak at a University of Waterloo residence. The university reported on Tuesday morning that two recent cases were close contacts with a third, prompting an outbreak to be declared at Claudette Millar Hall.
The outbreak at Conestoga College's child-care centre was declared over.
RATE OF SPREAD IN THE REGION
The Region of Waterloo's online COVID-19 dashboard now shows the seven-day rolling average for positivity rate. On Tuesday, the positivity rate sat at 1.9 per cent.
That's right in the middle of the 1-to-2.5 per cent range that the province has laid out for the yellow "protect" category, under its new pandemic restriction system.
The region's COVID-19 reproduction rate, or the expected number of cases generated by one case in the susceptible population, sat at 1.4 on Tuesday. By the province's new tiered evaluation system, that number would put Waterloo Region in the red "restrict" category.
