KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials reported 14 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pushing the region's total number of cases to date above 2,000.

There have now been 2,005 cases in the region—up from the 1,991 reported on Monday—including 1,782 resolved cases and 120 deaths.

That leaves 94 active cases in the region, up from the 89 reported the day before.

The region also reported that 5,443 more tests had been done since the testing numbers were last updated on Friday. Testing partners have done a total of 160,300 tests in the region since the pandemic began.

The number of active outbreaks in the region remained unchanged on Tuesday, as officials declared one new outbreak and ended another.

Officials declared an outbreak at the Victoria Place Retirement Residence on Oct. 18 after one staff member tested positive for infection. The outbreak at the dental service, meanwhile, which saw three total cases attributed to it, was declared over.

There are eight other active outbreaks in the region:

  • The Village at University Gates LTC: one case in staff
  • Sunnyside Home LTC – Castle Kilbride Unit: one case in staff
  • Stirling Heights LTC: one case in a resident
  • Doon Village RH: one case in a resident
  • Conestoga Lodge RH: two cases in staff
  • Congregate setting: four cases in residents, two in staff
  • Wilfrid Laurier University: 19 total cases
  • WRDSB before-and-after school program: one total case

Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said the COVID-19 situation is stable in Waterloo Region, but said there are concerns about the possibility of gatherings over Thanksgiving.

"We'll have to see, we'll be watching carefully," Dr. Wang said.

Test processing at local labs has sped up. Grand River Hospital received two new swab machines and the lab was able to go from processing 66 tests a day to more than 1,000.

It's helped reduce the wait times for results.

"As of (Monday), we had a 16-hour turnaround rate for tests running through that lab," said Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary's General Hospital and head of testing for the region. "That's going to help us all respond and going to help our health colleagues respond as well."


Officials are urging residents to continue following public health measures so that businesses and schools can stay open during the second wave of COVID-19.

Across the province, public health officials reported 821 new cases on Tuesday, but on a notably lower number of tests. On just 24,000 processed swabs, the positivity rate rose to 3.4 per cent.

The bulk of the new cases were found in Ontario's four COVID-19 hotspots. Toronto saw 327 new cases, while Peel Region saw 136, York Region saw 64 and Ottawa saw 79.

Those four regions are in a modified Stage 2 of the province's reopening plan, having been reverted from Stage 3 in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19.

There have now been 65,896 cases of COVID-19 in the province, including 56,606 recovered patients and 3,053 deaths.