KITCHENER -- On Friday morning, Region of Waterloo Public Health listed another 11 local cases on its website, bringing the total here to 69.
That’s up from 58 cases reported by Public Health on Wednesday.
The new total consists of 32 laboratory-confirmed cases and 36 presumptive positive cases.
In a first for the region, one of the cases has been marked "resolved."
Acting Medical Officer Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang says that the Ministry of Health has provided updated guidance on when a case is considered resolved.
She says that people in self-isolation can consider their case resolved 14 days after they first started showing symptoms, provided that they don't have a fever and that their symptoms are improving.
Frontline and hospital workers still require two negative test results 24 hours apart.
Dr. Wang says that people who have been lab-confirmed positive for COVID-19 but who are considered resolved do not put the community at risk more than anyone else.
She also says that, under the new set of guidelines, more and more of the earliest cases will be resolved in the coming days.
Eleven of the cases on the region's website are listed as being hospitalized, though that number could rise: for 10 of the cases, the status is still listed as pending.
Public Health said Friday that 901 tests have been confirmed negative, while the results of 493 are still pending.
The region is also keeping its eye on hundreds of other cases, Dr. Wang says.
When asked how long the pandemic will last, the region's medical officer was unable to stay.
"Unfortunately I can't at this time," said Wang. "We're still looking at this day by day, expect week by week even for the next few weeks."
Dr. Wang said Friday that she feels it's necessary for everybody to avoid all non-household gatherings, no matter what the size.
"We should all take precautions and assume we could encounter (COVID-19) across the region," she said.
Earlier this month, the Ontario government ordered people not to gather in groups of 50 or more.
On Wednesday, Dr. Wang had said at a news conference that every single presumptive positive case in Waterloo Region so far had gone on to be lab-confirmed.
