Region reports new COVID-related death, 21 new cases Wednesday

For the first time in several weeks, the public health department in Waterloo Region is reporting a new COVID-related death. It puts the local death toll at 306.

21 new COVID-19 cases were also added to the overall total on Wednesday, two were added to previous daily totals.

There have been 20,762 cases in the region since March, 2020.

Hospitalizations are down to seven — but the number of patients in intensive care has increased to five (Hospital data is current to Nov. 22).

The active caseload is down to 232.

88 per cent of residents 12 and over are now fully vaccinated. 86 per cent of eligible residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, which works out to over 935,000 doses.

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

• 7,081 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) – 3,573 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 
• 20,221 resolved cases (97 per cent)
• Over 642,000 tests have been done

There are 12 outbreaks in the region:

• NEW 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 (15 cases)
• Sports and fitness 4 – gym-related (3 cases)
• Blair Road Public School (2 cases)
• Trades and related services 23 (4 cases)

Meanwhile, the province reported 591 new cases Wednesday — 293 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
• 613,522 total cases
• 598,134 resolved cases
• In hospital due to COVID – 104 unvaccinated – 5 partially vaccinated – 59 fully vaccinated. ICU data – 66 unvaccinated – 3 partially vaccinated – 14 fully vaccinated
• 9,981 deaths (7 new)
• 30,092 tests completed Monday — Over 19.56 million since January 15, 2020