50 new COVID-19 cases added over the weekend in Waterloo Region; total infections pass 20K

Waterloo -

Health officials in Waterloo Region reported 50 more COVID-19 cases over the weekend as the total case count since the pandemic began passed 20,000.

Of the latest infections, 15 are linked to Friday, 18 to Saturday and 17 to Sunday.

Many of the weekend cases were among young people, including 11 cases recorded in children nine or younger, seven among youth aged 10 to 19 and six among people in their 20s.

The Region of Waterloo Public Health is no longer updating its COVID-19 dashboard on weekends, citing stabilized case counts.

There have now been 20,020 lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases logged in Waterloo Region, including 19,608 resolved infections, 107 active cases and 302 deaths.

Hospitalizations increased by one over the weekend, up to 10. Intensive care unit admissions dropped by two from Friday's update, down to one.

One new COVID-19 outbreak was declared over the weekend, bringing the number of active outbreaks up to two.

Another 24 infections were confirmed as variant of concern cases in Monday's update.

The breakdown of Waterloo Region's 6,674 lab-confirmed variant cases is as follows:

• 3,127 are the Alpha variant
• 21 are the Beta variant
• 98 are the Gamma variant
• 3,167 are the Delta variant
• 261 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed

Meanwhile, more than 2,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered over the weekend. Health officials in Waterloo Region have now put 890,958 jabs into arms since the vaccine rollout began.

More than 87 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated and 90.72 per cent have received at least one dose.

More than 74.9 per cent of the region's entire population is fully vaccinated and 78.12 per cent have received at least one dose.

Province-wide, 326 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed on Monday.

Ontario's rolling seven-day average now sits at 372, down from 416 last Monday.

The province has confirmed 597,841 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

With files from CTV Toronto.