KITCHENER -- The total number of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region surpassed 8,000 on Friday as public health officials reported 132 new infections.

There have now been 8,088 confirmed cases in the region, including 6,862 resolved cases and 179 deaths.

Friday's update lowered the number of active cases by 47, from 1,092 to 1,045. Of the active cases, 37 people are in hospital, including 20 people who getting care in the ICU.

Officials reported that the region's testing partners had done another 4,109 tests since Tuesday, bringing the total number done to 293,977.

The region's positivity rate rose by a full percentage point on Friday, from 7.3 to 8.3. Last week, the positivity rate was around 5.5 per cent. The region's reproduction estimate, on the other hand, dropped from 1.2 to 1.0. That number indicates how many new cases there will be per active case in the population.

SITUATION 'QUITE SERIOUS' BUT VACCINATION NUMBERS GROWING

During her weekly media briefing, the region's medical officer of health said that the region's weekly incidence rate had risen from 160 cases per 100,000 people to about 185 cases per 100,000 people.

"These indicators show that our situation locally is quite serious," said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang during the virtual briefing.

"In the coming weeks we will see if the enhanced provincial measures and our own individual actions are working to bring COVID-19 under control."

The latest numbers come one day after the province's stay-at-home order came into effect. It also came as the region surpassed 10,000 vaccinations.

During the same media briefing, the head of the vaccine task force, Dept. Chief Shirley Fullerton of the Waterloo Regional Police Service announced that immunizing was on track to be finished in region's long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes within the next two weeks.

ACROSS THE PROVINCE

Ontario as a whole reported 100 new deaths on Friday, though 46 of those were backlogged from earlier in the pandemic. A spokesperson with the public health unit said the backlog is due to a data-clearing effort and that the deaths are cumulative and not a one-day increase.

The province reported nearly 3,000 new infections on Friday alongside a record-breaking 76,472 tests that were done. That brought the provincial positivity rate to 4.6 per cent, the province's minister of health said, which is the lowest rate since Boxing Day.

The province’s seven-day average for the number of infections recorded is now 3,273, down from 3,394 one week ago.