New COVID-related death, 23 cases reported in region Thursday

For a second straight day, Region of Waterloo Public Health is reporting a new COVID-related death. It puts the local death toll at 307.

23 new COVID-19 cases were also confirmed on Thursday, although just 22 were added to the overall total due to data clean up.

There have been 20,784 local cases since March, 2020.

Hospitalizations are down to six — with four people in intensive care (Hospital data is current to Nov. 23).

The active caseload is down to 230.

88.79 per cent of residents 12 and over in Waterloo Region are now fully vaccinated. Over 937,000 doses have been administered to local residents.

Here are some other updates from the region's COVID summary dashboard: 

• 7,089 cases have screened positive for variants of concern – 3,127 are the Alpha variant (first found in U.K.) – 21 are linked to the Beta variant (first detected in South Africa) – 3,581 are linked to the Delta strain (first located in India) – 98 are linked to the Gamma variant (first found in Brazil) – 262 cases where a mutation has been detected 
• 20,245 resolved cases (97 per cent)
• Over 642,000 tests have been done

There are 12 outbreaks in the region:

• NEW JHCC Riverside Childcare Centre (2 cases)
• NEW Apostolic Faith Mission (5 cases)
• Manufacturing/industrial 45 (2 cases)
• Health services – chiropractic (3 cases)
• Sports and fitness 5 – gym-related (2 cases)
• Sports and fitness 4 – hockey-related (2 cases)
• Retail 17 (2 cases)
• Transportation 4 (2 cases)
• Career, skills and training 1 (4 cases)
• Floradale Public School (2 cases)
• Blessed Sacrament Catholic Elementary School (17 cases)
• Trades and related services 23 (4 cases)

Meanwhile, the province reported 748 new cases Thursday — 356 were unvaccinated.

The rest of the provincial COVID-19 totals are posted below:

• 86 per cent of those 12 and over have been fully vaccinated
• 614,270 total cases
• 598,733 resolved cases
• In hospital due to COVID – 98 unvaccinated – 5 partially vaccinated – 45 fully vaccinated. ICU data – 63 unvaccinated – 2 partially vaccinated – 10 fully vaccinated
• 9,985 deaths (4 new)
• 33,932 tests completed Wednesday — Over 19.59 million since January 15, 2020