KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials reported 98 more COVID-19 cases on Monday, along with one new death related to the disease.

This is the highest case increase since Jan. 21, when officials added 118 cases to the region's total.

Active cases also rose to 527 Monday, the highest they've been since there were 541 active cases on Jan. 30.

That brings the total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases to 12,704, including 11,918 recoveries and 245 deaths.

The region's COVID-19 dashboard shows 828 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern. Of those, 40 are confirmed as the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K.

Hospitalizations rose Monday as well. There are 24 people in hospital receiving COVID-19 treatment, including 10 in the ICU.

There are 16 active outbreaks in Waterloo Region.

Ontario reported 4,401 new infections on Monday, the second straight day of increases of more than 4,400 cases. On Sunday, the province set a record with 4,456 new cases of the disease.

There were 47,929 COVID-19 tests completed in the past 24 hours, meaning the province's positivity rate is at 9.5 per cent.

The seven-day average for new cases in Ontario is 3,781. Last Monday, it was 2,757.

The province has reported 391,009 cases of the disease to date, including 348,684 recoveries and 7,567 deaths.