Waterloo Region logs one COVID-19-related death, 12 cases on Tuesday as active infections drop

Waterloo -

Health officials in Waterloo Region logged one COVID-19-related death and 12 new cases on Tuesday.

Public health said the latest death was a man in his 50s.

Meanwhile, both active cases and hospitalizations in the area decreased in the past 24 hours.

There are now 164 active COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region.

Across the region, 23 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, down from 27 on Monday. There are also three fewer people receiving treatment in area intensive care units, down to 13.

The latest cases in Tuesday's report bring Waterloo Region's cumulative caseload to 18,211, including 17,756 resolved infections and 281 deaths.

Two more active outbreaks were declared in the past day, now up to 12.

In Tuesday's update, health officials confirmed more than 100 COVID-19 infections as variant of concern cases, with most as the Delta variant, bringing the total number of variant cases to 4,507.

There have now been more than 1,000 lab-confirmed Delta variant cases in Waterloo Region.

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
• 1,009 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

Since the pandemic began, health officials have processed 535,717 COVID-19 tests. As of Tuesday, Waterloo Region's positivity rate sits at 2.7 per cent. The reproductive rate of the virus is 0.8.

The seven-day moving average rate of cases per 100,000 is 3.7.

On Monday, health partners across the region administered 5,172 more COVID-19 vaccine doses, bringing the total number of jabs in arms to 708,992.

More than 59.7 per cent of the eligible population is fully immunized, while 80.7 per cent of residents 12 and older have received at least one dose.

Across Ontario, two deaths and 127 cases were reported on Tuesday.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 152, down from 170 a week ago.

The province-wide positivity rate sits at 0.9 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

There are now 1,354 active COVID-19 cases across Ontario.

With files from CTV Toronto.