Two COVID-19 deaths, 18 new cases reported in Waterloo Region
Health officials in Waterloo Region reported two COVID-19-related deaths and 18 new cases on Wednesday, as active infections dropped significantly.
The two latest deaths – a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s – bring the region's death toll to 297.
Waterloo Region has now confirmed 19,481 COVID-19 cases, with 19,010 infections considered resolved. The total case count only increased by 17 on Wednesday due to a data cleanup.
Active cases dropped by 46 in Wednesday's update, down from 216 to 170.
Hospitalizations in the region increased by two in the past day, now up to 12. There are currently six people receiving treatment in area intensive care units, an increase of two from Tuesday's report.
One new COVID-19 outbreak was declared in the past day, bringing the number of active outbreaks across Waterloo Region to nine.
Another 16 infections were confirmed as variant of concern cases on Wednesday, all of which were linked to the Delta variant.
Waterloo Region has lab-confirmed 6,246 variant cases since the pandemic began.
The region's variant breakdown is as follows:
- 3,127 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
- 21 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred to as B.1.315
- 98 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
- 2, 737 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
- 263 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
Meanwhile, Waterloo Region passed another milestone in the vaccine rollout in the past day, with more than 850,000 doses having now been administered.
On Tuesday, 1,180 jabs were put into arms, bringing the number of doses administered to 850,288.
Among eligible residents 12 and older, 82.23 per cent are fully vaccinated and 88.23 per cent have received at least one dose.
Including Waterloo Region's entire population, 70.9 per cent are fully vaccinated and 75.97 per cent have received at least one dose.
Province-wide, 463 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Wednesday, marking the lowest single-day increase since Aug. 17.
Of the cases reported Wednesday, 332 are in individuals who are unvaccinated, not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 131 are in fully vaccinated individuals.
Since the pandemic began, Ontario has logged 581,231 COVID-19 cases.
With files from CTV Toronto.
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