KITCHENER -- The active COVID-19 case count in Waterloo Region has increased by 21 as health officials report 65 new cases on Saturday.
The online dashboard update also shows 43 more cases considered resolved and no new related deaths.
There are 11 more cases that have been identified as variants of concern, with 10 more being flagged as the Alpha variant (B.1.1.7, first detected in the U.K.) and one more as the Delta (B.1.617, first detected in India).
However, health officials said on Friday they believe there are more Delta variants in the area than are being reported and attribute a rise in cases to its spread.
The number of hospitalizations and those being treated in the ICU have both gone up by one.
No new facility outbreaks have been declared in the area in the past 24 hours.
This brings the Waterloo Region COVID-19 totals to 16,535 confirmed cases, 15,842 resolved, 258 deaths, 426 active cases, 3,422 variants of concern, 3,025 Alpha variants, eight Beta variants (B.1.351, first detected in South Africa), 60 Gamma variants (P.1., first detected in Brazil), 33 hospitalizations, 20 in the ICU, and four active outbreaks.
In Ontario, health officials are reporting 502 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, which comes after officials reported 590 new infections on Thursday and 574 new infections on Friday.
The province also reported that 15 more people have died due to COVID-19 in the previous 24-hour period, bringing the total number of deaths to 8,950.
Ontario deemed 830 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Saturday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 524,362.
