Woman in 70s latest victim of COVID-19 in Waterloo Region

Waterloo Public Health reported another COVID-19-related death on Friday, bring the death toll in the region to 118.

It is the third time in the past eight days that the agency has reported a COVID-19-related death, although they are also the only ones to have occurred in July.

Waterloo Public Health says the latest victim was a woman in her 70s who acquired the virus through community spread.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Waterloo’s acting medical officer of health, offered her condolences while also stating that the death was a tragic reminder of the seriousness of COVID-19.

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Thus far, 95 deaths in the area have been connected to outbreaks at long-term care or retirement homes.

There were two new positive tests for the coronavirus reported in Waterloo Region on Friday bringing the total number of cases to 1,351.

Two more people were also cleared of the virus, raising the total number of resolved cases to 1,185.

Waterloo Public Health updates the number of tests taken two days a week — on Friday it said there have now been 44,290 conducted with three per cent coming back positive.

Over the past week, there have been 2,375 tests conducted with .0008 per cent (18 tests) coming back positive.

For the third time this week, Ontario reported 111 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 37,274.

The death toll in the province has risen to 2,746, as nine new deaths were reported.

–With files from Gabby Rodrigues