Five new coronavirus cases reported in Waterloo, 149 active cases remain

Waterloo Public Health reported just five new positive tests for the coronavirus on Friday raising the total number of cases in the region to 1,676.

At the same time, the agency said there were 11 people cleared of the virus, pushing the number of resolved cases to 1,407.

Area hospitals continue to remain clear of coronavirus patients while the area has not seen a COVID-19-related death since August, leaving the death toll at 120.

This adds up to there being 149 active cases in Waterloo Region, six less than Thursday.

2:27 New COVID-19 testing guidelines in Ontario

The drive-thru testing in Kitchener closed a short time after opening on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Waterloo Public Health told Global News it is uncertain what effect the closure had on Friday’s numbers.

“The short answer is that we are not sure. Even though testing sites reached capacity or had to close early this week, they still have been processing much higher volumes of tests,” Julie Kalbfleisch said through email. “We are also continuing to receive results and our systems haven’t been impacted by any of the technology issues that were experienced by the lab systems earlier this week.

“We’ll need to continue to monitor trends.”

There are currently nine active outbreaks with two of those seeing an increase in the number of positive tests on Friday.

A fourth person has tested positive in connection to the outbreak in the food and service sector while a third person has tested positive in connection with the two outbreaks in congregate settings.

In addition to the aforementioned outbreaks, there remain two others in nursing homes, three in daycares and one at a fitness centre.

2:29 Ontario government announces new guidelines for use of COVID-19 assessment centres

Neither the Waterloo Region District School Board or Waterloo Catholic District School Board have reported any new cases involving students or staff since Wednesday.

Ontario is reporting 409 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the provincial total to 48,905.

Friday’s provincial case count is the exact same number of cases also reported on Thursday. Five out of the last seven days have recorded cases in the 400s.

According to Friday’s report, 204 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 66 in Peel Region, 40 in Ottawa and 33 in York Region.

–With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues