KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health officials have reported another 19 new cases of COVID-19.
Tuesday's update pushes the region's total number of cases to 1,914, up from the 1,895 reported on Monday. The region's online COVID-19 dashboard shows that 14 of the new cases were reported on Monday, while another five were added to the totals from previous days.
While the number of new cases jumped, the number of resolved cases didn't follow suit, as the region reported just two more resolved cases. To date, 1,667 cases have been marked resolved, while 120 people have died from the disease.
That leaves 127 known active cases of COVID-19 in the region. Three of those cases are in hospital, the region's website shows.
Public health officials also reported that nearly 8,000 new tests had been done since Friday's update, for an average of over 1,970 per day. To date, there have been 152,897 tests done in the region.
The Region of Waterloo isn't a COVID-19 hotspot, but Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang is still cautious about the local case count.
"Similar to other mid-sized regions in Ontario however, we remain in a precarious state," Dr. Wang said.
Over the past month, case counts have ranged from as high as 25 new cases to as low as three.
The province is projected to hit 1,000 new cases a day by mid-October.
"If you take that number and you take a look at the Ontario population that residents of Waterloo Region represent, that's about four per cent," Dr. Wang said. "So, you'd be looking at 40 cases a day."
Hospitalizations and deaths are often lagging indicators.
Officials at Cambridge Memorial Hospital say they have 23 ventilators on standby, along with a 12-bed intensive care unit that can be expanded to 22 beds in the event of a major event like a COVID-19 surge.
St. Mary's General Hospital had 30 critical care beds for a variety of needs, including COVID-19. The hospital will work with regional partner hospitals to support one another if there's an increased demand for beds.
STATUS OF OUTBREAKS
Officials also reported two more outbreaks, including one at a Wilfrid Laurier University residence. The school reported three cases at Clara Conrad Hall over the weekend, but the region's website shows a total of seven cases attributed to the outbreak.
The outbreak comes just days after Western University had an outbreak of its own declared by London's public health unit.
There are six other active outbreaks in the region:
- Fairview Mennonite LTC: one case in a resident
- Conestoga Lodge RH: two cases in staff
- Pinehaven LTC: one case in staff
- Congregate setting: four cases in residents, two cases in staff
- Ecole Cardinal-Léger: two cases
- JF Carmichael: two cases
- Two child-care settings: two total cases
CASES IN ONTARIO
Across the province, officials reported more than 1,500 cases over the past two days.
The number of cases includes 807 infections logged, but not released, on the holiday Monday, and 746 recorded on Tuesday.
As has been the case in recent days, most of the cases across the province were reported in the three hot-spots. Toronto was responsible for 614 cases, while Peel Region saw 294 and Ottawa saw 235. York Region also reported 98 new cases over the two-day stretch.
Ontario has seen 60,692 cases since the pandemic began. Of those, 51,729 cases have been resolved, while another 3,017 have resulted in death. That's a death rate of around five per cent.
The province's website shows that more than 4.4 million tests have been done to date. More than 24,000 of those results are still pending.
With reporting by CTV News Kitchener's Nicole Lampa