Waterloo Public Health announced Monday morning that there are 55 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the region, by far the biggest one-day jump the area has seen.
On Sunday, the region had reported 272 positive cases and the added number brings the total to 327.
The number seems fairly high because there had only been 42 new cases reported over the previous three days but Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Waterloo Region’s acting medical officer of health, says there are reasons for the jump.
“We were able to secure a lot more swabs as well as the fact that the province updated guidance in terms of the priority groups for testing and so we actioned that immediately,” she explained.
There are now 94 cases that have been cleared in the region, including 12 more people who are no longer infected. That number includes the 11 victims who have suffered COVID-19-related deaths in the area, including two more over the weekend.
Nearly a third of the cases (100) involve health-care workers, while 85 involve people who work or reside in long-term care or retirement homes.
One long-term care home, Forest Heights Rivera, has seen 35 residents and 15 staff members test positive for the novel coronavirus.
“They are experiencing an active outbreak and this is what we can see in outbreaks in these types of settings,” Wang said.
She says every staff member and resident of the facility, which has a couple of hundred residents, is being tested.
“There’s a lot of action taking place with respect to Forest Heights to try to minimize further spread,” she said.
One resident of Forest Heights Rivera is among the four from long-term care or retirement homes in Waterloo Region who have suffered COVID-19-related deaths.
Public health releases the updated numbers every morning based upon the previous night’s numbers.
The province reported 421 new COVID-19 cases, including 17 deaths on Monday, lifting the total number of cases to 7,470, with the death toll now at 291.
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