KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 187 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, pushing the active case number to a new all-time high.
The number of cases in Waterloo Region has gone up by at least 130 almost every day this month. The lone exception was on Jan. 2, a day that the region’s online COVID-19 dashboard shows had 99 cases reported.
Before 2021, the number of new cases in a single day never rose past 125.
There have now been 6,856 lab-confirmed cases in Waterloo Region since the pandemic began, a number that has risen substantially over the last two months; on Nov. 7, there were 2,349 cases in the region, the dashboard shows.
Thursday’s public health update also included another death, bringing the region’s death toll to 172. More than 40 of those people have died in the last month alone.
Public health officials also reported that 106 more cases had been resolved. That brings the total number of recovered cases to 5,793. When accounting for that number and the death toll, there are 888 active cases in the region. That record has been broken every day this month.
Twenty-five people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, the dashboard shows, including 11 in the ICU.
In its update, Region of Waterloo Public Health also reported that three more outbreaks had been declared, bringing the total number of active outbreaks to 34. Twenty of those are in long-term care or retirement homes.
RECORD-BREAKING DAY ACROSS THE PROVINCE
Ontario as a whole broke two records on Thursday, with more than 3,500 new infections reported and 89 new deaths confirmed.
The latter number exceeded the previous single-day death toll record of 86, which was reported back on April 30. More than 4,850 people in Ontario have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
Thursday was the fourth day in a row on which the province reported more than 3,100 new COVID-19 cases. It’s also the first time that the number has been above 3,500.
