WATERLOO REGION -- Waterloo Region’s top doctor told councillors Tuesday morning that COVID-19 case rates are back on the rise.
“Our investigations have identified clusters or groups of cases that are associated with households or social events in private settings as a main driver contributing to the increase in cases,” said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Region of Waterloo's medical officer of Health, during a COVID-19 update to the Committee of the Whole.
Dr. Wang noted the jump in cases are continuing to affect mostly unimmunized individuals and groups.
Waterloo Region currently has 126,000 people who are not immunized against COVID-19. Dr. Wang said 44,000 of those individuals are eligible residents over the age of 12, while 82,000 of them are children between the ages of five to 11 who can’t yet receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“For a comparison, this is equivalent to an entire mid-sized city such as Cambridge or Waterloo not being immunized,” said Dr. Wang.
Dr. Wang also told councillors, Waterloo Region’s seven-day moving average of new cases per 100,000 has doubled over the past few days, and is currently above the provincial average.
Waterloo Region’s seven-day moving average of new cases per 100,000 is at 4.1. While Ontario’s is at 3.1.
