KITCHENER -- Health officials in Waterloo Region reported 74 more COVID-19 cases and another death on Wednesday.

Active cases dropped to 586, down from 679 on Tuesday.

The latest update brings the total to 13,504 to date, including 12,655 recoveries and 248 deaths.

Another 74 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern, for a total of 1,299. That includes 40 cases confirmed as the B.1.1.7 variant and one each identified as the B.1.351 and P.1 variants.

The region's COVID-19 dashboard shows another eight people in hospital with COVID-19, for a total of 51. Of those, 22 are receiving treatment in the ICU.

There are 24 active outbreaks in the region.

Ontario reported 4,212 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday. There are 790 people in ICUs across the province, the highest number of patients to date.

The seven-day average for new cases is 4,326. Last week, it was 4,208.

There have been 429,123 lab-confirmed cases of the disease in Ontario, including 378,417 recoveries and 7,789 deaths.

There are 42,917 active cases in Ontario.