Waterloo Region logs five COVID-19-related deaths in past two days, 83 new infections

Waterloo -

Health officials in Waterloo Region logged five COVID-19-related deaths in the past two days, along with 83 new infections.

The latest deaths bring the region's COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began to 270.

The deaths include a man in his 40s, a man in his 70s, a man in his 80s, a man in his 90s and a woman in her 100s.

"While we are starting to see some improvement in our current trends, the increase in deaths is not unexpected," associate medical officer of health Dr. Rabia Bana said in an email. "Hospitalizations, people requiring ICU care and sadly, deaths, are lagging indicators that we see increase in the weeks following higher case rates."

Of the new confirmed cases, 43 are from Wednesday and 35 from Thursday. The remainder are from previous reporting periods.

Friday's report brings Waterloo Region's cumulative case count to 17,667, including resolved infections, deaths and active cases.

The Region of Waterloo did not provide an update on Thursday because of the holiday.

ACTIVE INFECTIONS DROP

Meanwhile, active cases of COVID-19 dipped below 400 for the first time in weeks, now sitting at 392.

There are currently 55 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Waterloo Region, with 24 of those receiving treatment in area intensive care units.

There are also 22 active outbreaks in the region, with most of them in workplace or facility settings.

Health officials completed another 2,367 COVID-19 tests since Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests processed to 520,030.

Waterloo Region's positivity rate sits at 5.7 per cent, while the reproductive rate of the virus is 0.9.

MORE VARIANT CASES CONFIRMED

Health officials confirmed another 34 COVID-19 cases as variants of concern in the past two days. That brings the total number of variant cases in Waterloo Region to 3,925.

Another 21 were confirmed as the Delta variant in Friday's report.

The region's variant breakdown is as follows:

• 3,095 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
• 443 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previous called B.1.617
• 314 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed

SECOND DOSES CONTINUE TO RAMP UP

More than 16,700 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered in Waterloo Region over the past two days.

Some 565,267 jabs have now been put into arms since the vaccine rollout began.

More than 78.8 per cent of adults in the region have received at least one dose, while 37.22 per cent are fully vaccinated.

PROVINCE-WIDE SNAPSHOT

Health officials in Ontario logged 484 new cases of COVID-19 and 28 deaths in the past two days.

The province-wide rolling seven-day average now stands at 258, down from 292 at this point last week.

Since the pandemic began, Ontario as confirmed 545,381 cases of COVID-19.

With files from CTV Toronto.