KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health has confirmed another two local cases of COVID-19.
The first is in a female in her 20s. She was tested at St. Mary's General Hospital and is now self-isolating at home.
Hers is the first case confirmed case of community transmission in the region.
At a news conference on Thursday morning, Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang announced that the patient is an employee at St. Mary's.
Dr. Wang says she developed symptoms on March 11 and was tested two days later.
She was symptomatic at work on March 13, but Dr. Wang says the patient does not provide direct patient care.
The hospital is working towards establishing who the employee may have been in contact with at work.
The other new case is also a female in her 20s. She was tested at an Assessment Centre in Toronto and is also self-isolating.
These two cases are the first locally-reported community cases, meaning that Public Health cannot trace the cases to any cases who had recently travelled.
"Local transmission of the virus is something we were anticipating and preparing for," Dr. Wang says.
This brings the total number of cases to 12. They were posted on the Region of Waterloo's website on Thursday morning.
The Region of Waterloo's other 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were all related to travel or close contact to travel.
On Thursday, Ontario announced 43 more positive cases of the virus, bringing the provincial total to 257.
Of those, five people have recovered. One person has died.
