Waterloo Region adds 35 new COVID-19 cases; more than 25% of adults now fully vaccinated

Waterloo -

Waterloo Region logged 35 new COVID-19 infections Friday as health officials administered a record-breaking number of vaccine doses yesterday.

The 35 new cases bring the region's cumulative caseload to 17,304, with 16,540 cases considered resolved, 262 deaths and 485 active infections.

Meanwhile, 10,358 vaccine doses were administered on Thursday, a new daily record for Waterloo Region. That pushes Waterloo Region over the 500,000 doses administered mark, with 502,690 jabs now put into arms.

More than 75.8 per cent of adults have now received at least one dose, while 25.35 per cent of residents 18 and older are fully immunized.

Hospitalizations dropped by one, down to 60 people. Of those, 27 are receiving treatment in area intensive care units.

There are 17 active outbreaks across Waterloo Region, the majority in workplace or facility settings. Four active outbreaks are in congregative living settings.

Another nine cases were confirmed as variants of concern on Friday, bringing the total number of variant cases to 3,587.

Waterloo Region's variant breakdown is as follows:

• 3,073 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
• 11 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred as B.1.315
• 61 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
• 123 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previous called B.1.617
• 313 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed

Another 2,944 COVID-19 tests were completed since Tuesday. More than 514,086 tests have been processed since the pandemic began.

Waterloo Region's positivity rate rose from 6.4 per cent on Tuesday to 6.7 per cent on Friday. The reproductive rate of the virus in the community jumped from 0.9 on Tuesday to 1.0 on Friday.

Province-wide, health officials logged 256 new infections and two deaths in the past 24 hours.

Friday’s report brings Ontario’s COVID-19 case total to 543,571, including 531,571 recoveries and 9,101 deaths.

With files from CTV Toronto.