Waterloo Region confirms 39 new COVID-19 cases over the past two days
Waterloo Region logged 39 more COVID-19 cases over the past two days as the test positivity rate continues to rise.
The Region of Waterloo health unit did not provide a COVID-19 update on Monday because of the holiday.
Of the 39 new cases reported on Tuesday, 17 are linked to Monday, 19 to Sunday and five are from previous reporting periods.
Eight of the latest cases are among children nine or younger.
Waterloo Region has now confirmed a total of 19,113 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, including 18,649 resolved infections, 290 deaths and 169 active cases.
Health officials have now processed 575,458 COVID-19 tests. As of Tuesday, the region's seven-day average positivity rate sits at 3.0 per cent. On Friday, that number was 2.8 per cent.
The reproductive rate of the virus sits at 1.0, marking a slight dip from 1.1 on Friday.
Across the region, there are currently seven people hospitalized with COVID-19. Nine people receiving treatment in area intensive care units, an increase of two since Sunday's update.
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.
Two COVID-19 outbreaks were declared resolved in Tuesday's update, bringing the number of active outbreaks down to three.
Waterloo Region has confirmed 5,103 variant of concern cases.
The region's variant breakdown is as follows:
- 3,131 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
- 1,594 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
- 259 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
Meanwhile, 3,503 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Waterloo Region over the long weekend, bringing the total number of jabs put into arms to 831,857.
More than 86.7 per cent of residents 12 and older have now received at least one dose while 80.14 per cent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated.
Among the region's entire population, 74.69 per cent have received one dose and 69.01 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Across Ontario, 1,145 new COVID-19 infections were reported over the past 48 hours.
The province also did not report COVID-19 figures on Monday because of the statutory holiday.
According to Health Minister Christine Elliott, 434 of Tuesday's cases are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while 130 are in fully vaccinated individuals.
Similarly, 457 of the cases reported for Monday were in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 124 were in fully vaccinated individuals.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ontario has confirmed 9,553 COVID-19-related deaths and 570,778 cases.
With files from CTV Toronto.
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