Waterloo Region adds 20 COVID-19 cases on Thursday; active outbreaks decline
The Region of Waterloo is reporting 20 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as the number of active outbreaks in the area dropped.
The latest cases bring the region's total since the pandemic began to 18,340, including 17,930 resolved infections, 119 active cases and 282 deaths.
Two active COVID-19 outbreaks were declared resolved in the past 24 hours, down from eight to six.
The number of people hospitalized with the disease remains unchanged from the previous update, currently sitting at 13. Of those, 12 are receiving treatment in area intensive care units.
Another 4,616 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Waterloo Region on Wednesday, bringing the total number of jabs put into arms to 753,747.
Among residents 12 and older, 82.7 per cent have now received at least one dose, while 68.3 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.
In Thursday's report, 11 infections were confirmed as variant of concern cases. Health officials in Waterloo Region have confirmed 4,683 variant of concern cases since the pandemic began.
The region's variant breakdown is as follows:
- 3,122 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
- 96 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
- 1,187 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
- 257 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
Province-wide, health officials confirmed 218 new COVID-19 cases, marking the first time the daily case count has been more than 200 in three weeks.
Thursday's report brings the total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases across Ontario to 549,952, including 539,200 recoveries and 9,328 deaths related to the disease.
With files from CTV Toronto.
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