KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials have declared an outbreak at a Waterloo gym after three people tested positive for COVID-19.

The region's online COVID-19 dashboard only identifies outbreaks at workplaces or facilities by sector, so the name of the facility is not known. It's also unclear whether those infected were staff, clients or both.

"The names of the settings will not be reported unless there is an increased risk to the general public or Public Health needs to ask the general public to self-identify as contacts of a setting," Dr. Ryan Van Meer with Region of Waterloo Public Health told CTV in a statement.

CTV Kitchener has confirmed that the outbreak was declared at an F45 location Waterloo.

"We are aware of three positive cases and are working with the Region of Waterloo Public Health Services to notify all members who may have come into contact with them," said co-owner Phil Cormier in a statement.

"Our workout program follows all provincial and municipal regulations and mandated protocols and is designed to decrease the risk of transmission in our studio, even if someone who tests positive has been in our facility. All members stay six feet apart and there is no sharing of equipment."

Cormier said that the studio would be temporarily closed while they worked with public health and did a deep clean of their facility. The company's Instagram page also stated that they would be offering members free virtual classes while they were closed.

Public health officials said that high-risk contacts of confirmed cases are being contacted and advised to self-isolate and be tested. Others are advised to self-monitor for symptoms.

This is the fifth workplace or facility to have had an outbreak since the pandemic began. Outbreaks have also been declared in:

  • One retail workplace, where three people tested positive;
  • One manufacturing/industrial facility, where six people tested positive; and
  • Two food processing facilities, where 112 people tested positive.

All of those outbreaks have been over for weeks. This is the first workplace or facility outbreak that has been declared since June. It's possible that the cases were identified earlier this week, as the region only updates workplace outbreak information on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The outbreak comes as the region reports another 12 new cases of COVID-19: seven new cases were reported on Thursday, while another five were added to previous days' tallies.

That brings the total number of positive cases to 1,558, of which 1,344 cases have been marked resolved and 120 have died.

The numbers leave 86 new active cases, a total that has nearly doubled since last Friday, when officials were reporting 44 active cases in the region.

There are still two other active outbreaks in the region, as well. The University at Village Gates outbreak has been ongoing since Sept. 5, after a staff member there tested positive for COVID-19.

A congregate setting in the region also has an active outbreak.

The region reported on Friday that another 3,791 tests had been done since Tuesday's update. That works out to an average of about 1,263 tests per day.

CASES CONTINUE TO CLIMB IN ONTARIO

Ontario set another months-long high on Friday, this time reporting more than 400 cases for the first time in 15 weeks. Public health officials reported 401 new cases, the highest single-day increase since June 2, when 446 infections were tallied.

Friday's new tally also represents a marked increase from Thursday, when 293 new cases were reported.

As has been the case in recent days, most of the cases were concentrated in three COVID-19 hotspots. Toronto accounted for 130 new cases, while Peel Region reported 82 and Ottawa reported 61.

The cases in those three areas have been increasing at such a high rate that Premier Doug Ford rolled back gathering limits there, reducing the number of people who can congregate to 10 inside and 25 outside.

In a tweet on Friday, Health Minister Christine Elliott said that COVID-19 hospitalizations remained stable, while both ICU admissions and the number of patients on ventilators saw small declines.

Ontario's totals now stand at 46,077 cases, 40,600 resolved cases and 2,825 deaths.