KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials reported another 83 COVID-19 cases on Thursday.

They also said another 11 people are in hospital who have the disease, for a total of 62. Officials with the Region of Waterloo confirmed this is the highest reported count for hospitalizations. There are 24 people in the ICU.

"It is the total number in our local hospitals and will include out-of-region patients if they are in our local hospitals," a spokesperson for public health said in an email to CTV Kitchener.

Officials said the numbers reflect patients who are still infectious. Others remain in hospital with lingering effects of the virus.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region is now at 13,587. The region also reported another death on Thursday, bringing the total to 249. There are 12,739 cases considered resolved.

As of Thursday, there are 583 active cases in Waterloo Region.

Here are the numbers of patients with COVID-19-related illness as of 12 a.m. on April 22.

  • St. Mary's General Hospital: 16 patients are COVID-19 positive, including nine in the ICU. There are seven out-of-region transfers.
  • Grand River Hospital: 18 COVID-19 positive patients, 12 in the ICU. There are 18 patients from out-of-region.
  • Cambridge Memorial Hospital: 22 patients with COVID-19, 12 in the ICU. CMH has 12 patients from out-of-region.

“All hospitals in the region continue to monitor our capacity day-to-day, so we can continue to support our communities,” said Lee Fairclough, St. Mary's Hospital president, said in an emailed statement. “Currently, within our region, we are continuing to take action to maximize capacity and preserve resources needed to care for patients, including maximizing all in-hospital capacity.”

Officials said hospitals have opened more ICU beds by ramping down elective surgical procedures.

So far, 1,359 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern. Of those, 44 are confirmed as the B.1.1.7 variant, one as the B.1.351 variant and one as the P.1 variant.

There are 28 active outbreaks in the region.

Officials reported a death linked to an outbreak at an unnamed construction workplace. A man in his 60s died. He was a resident of the Woodstock area, so his death was reported by Southwestern Public Health.

This is the second death in Waterloo Region related to a COVID-19 outbreak in a workplace.

There 3,682 COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario on Thursday, a significant drop from the 4,212 cases reported the day before.

The positivity rate also dropped slightly in the province to 7.8 per cent.

To date, Ontario has reported 432,805 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 383,014 recoveries and 7,829 deaths.