Waterloo Region adds 33 new COVID-19 cases on Friday

Waterloo -

Health officials in Waterloo Region reported 33 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.

Of the latest cases, 31 are linked to the past day and two are from previous reporting periods.

There have now been 19,195 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, including 18,705 resolved infections, 291 deaths and 194 active cases.

Hospitalizations rose by one in the past 24 hours, up to seven. There are currently eight people receiving treatment in area intensive care units.

The Region of Waterloo only counts active, infectious patients in hospitalization numbers, but counts both active and resolved cases in ICU figures. This means ICU numbers can sometimes be higher than hospitalizations.

The number of active outbreaks remains unchanged from Thursday, still sitting at four.

Another 1,265 COVID-19 tests were processed since Tuesday. A total of 576,723 tests have been completed in the region since the pandemic began.

Waterloo Region's positivity rate rose from 3.0 per cent on Tuesday to 3.1 per cent on Friday. The reproductive rate of the virus is 1.0.

Two more infections were confirmed as variant of concern cases in Friday's update, bringing the number of confirmed variant cases to 5,160.

Waterloo Region's variant breakdown is as follows:

• 3,134 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
• 1,651 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
• 256 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed

Meanwhile, health partners administered 1,132 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Thursday. Since the vaccine rollout began, 835,924 jabs have been put into arms.

More than 80.6 per cent of residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 87.05 per cent of the eligible population has received at least one dose.

Among Waterloo Region's entire population, 69.41 per cent are fully vaccinated and 74.96 per cent have received one dose.

Across Ontario, 848 new COVID-19 infections were reported on Friday.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said 659 of the new cases involve individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 189 are in fully vaccinated individuals.

The province has now confirmed 572,978 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

With files from CTV Toronto.