COVID-19 outbreak declared at sports and fitness facility in Waterloo Region

Waterloo Public Health has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at a sports and fitness facility within the region.

The agency has not disclosed any further details about the situation other than three positive cases have been connected to the outbreak.

“We have expanded the workplace/facility outbreak section on our dashboard to include sports and fitness facilities to keep the community informed about outbreaks in our community and where they’re occurring,” Dr. Ryan Van Der Meer, associate medical officer of health, stated.

“The names of the settings will not be reported unless there is an increased risk to the general public or Public Health needs to ask the general public to self-identify as contacts of a setting.”

He says anyone who is at high risk of catching COVID-19 will be contacted by Waterloo Public Health and the facility has informed other attendees of the need to self-monitor for symptoms of the virus.

There remain two other outbreaks in the area including one at a congregate setting and one at the Village at University Gates Long-Term Care in Waterloo.

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A total of 81,666 tests have been conducted in Waterloo Region, an increase of 6,952 tests since last Friday.

That is a massive jump over the previous seven days in which there were 2,722 tests reported.

Waterloo Public also announced 12 new positive cases of the coronavirus on Friday bringing the total number of cases to 1,558.

Eight more people have been cleared of COVID-19 bringing the total number of resolved cases to 1,352.

No new COVID-19-related deaths have been reported in the area since Aug. 21 and the hospitals have been clear of COVID-19 patients since Sept. 3.

Those numbers leave the total number of active cases sitting at 86, an increase of four since Wednesday.

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Ontario is reporting 401 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 46,077.

Friday’s case count is a significant jump from Thursday which saw 293 new cases and is the highest one-day increase since June 7.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 130 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 82 in Peel Region, 61 in Ottawa, 40 in York Region and 19 in Halton Region.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 35,800 tests were processed in the last 24 hours; that is the largest number of tests completed so far.