KITCHENER -- Following a surge of new COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, the number of hospitalizations has also started to climb.
Public health officials reported a two-week low in new cases on Thursday with 24, but after 10 days of reporting 30 or more per day, the hospitalizations are catching up.
There are currently 21 people in hospital in Waterloo Region. Back on Nov. 1, officials reported that there were nine people in hospital, while a month earlier, there were just two.
Earlier this week, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said that she expected hospitalizations and deaths to increase as a result of the higher case numbers.
The region has seen 2,872 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with more than 300 of those—more than 10 per cent—coming in the last week alone.
Of those, 2,401 cases have been marked resolved. That's an increase of 42 reported Thursday, outpacing the number of new cases. Since the start of March, 122 people have died from COVID-19.
There are now 349 active cases left in the region, a number that has also climbed substantially in recent weeks. A month ago on Oct. 19, there were just 89 active cases.
As a whole, Ontario hit its 150 COVID-19 patient threshold in ICU, raising concerns around other hospital care. Previously, the province said that once the number of patients in intensive care gets to 150, it becomes harder to support non-COVID-19 needs in hospitals. Once it exceeds 350 people, it becomes "impossible" to handle.
The province reported 1,210 new cases on Thursday, the 14th straight day on which the province reported cases in the quadruple digits.
The total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario now stands at 99,372, including 83,301 recoveries and 3,443 deaths.
