KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday afternoon, hours after the province announced that the region would be staying in the red "control" level.

There have now been a total of 3,888 cases in the region, including 3,183 resolved—a number that rose by 57 on Friday—and 126 deaths.

That leaves 573 active COVID-19 cases. Of those, the region's online COVID-19 dashboard shows that 30 people are in the hospital, while nine people are currently being care for in the intensive care unit.

The region added another 5,080 more tests to the dashboarding, bringing its total to 218,706. Last updated on Tuesday, that works out to about 1,693 tests per day.

There are currently 25 active outbreaks in the region.

REGION NOT MOVING TO LOCKDOWN

On Friday, the province escalated three public health units to into stricter COVID-19 zones. All others—including Waterloo Region—stayed at their current level.

The decision coincided with a statement from Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, who said during a media briefing on Friday morning that she hoped the region would be able to combat rising numbers without being put into lockdown.

Still, the numbers are rising.

Dr. Wang noted that the region has the fourth-fastest rising cases in Ontario. The local weekly incidence rate per 100,000 people hit 90 on Friday, she said, while the positivity rate climbed slightly to 4.1 per cent.

Those are both well above the parameters laid out for the red tier, which have a threshold of 40 cases per 100,000 people per week and 2.5 per cent positivity rate.

Dr. Wang said that she hoped the red restrictions—which have only been in place for 1.5 weeks—will be sufficient, along with two restrictions that she put in place, to get the spread of COVID-19 under control.

ACROSS THE PROVINCE

 

Ontario as a whole reported another 1,780 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday as the number of patients in the intensive care unit grew past 200.

That's the first time that's happened during the second wave of the pandemic.

As of Friday morning, there were 674 patients in Ontario hospitals with COVID-19. Of the 207 in the ICU, 116 were breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

There have been a total of 123,526 cases of COVID-19 in the province since the pandemic began, including 3,737 deaths—a number that rose by 25 in 24 hours—and more than 100,000 recoveries.