Waterloo Region back up to 161 active COVID-19 cases

There are now 161 active COVID-19 cases in the region, including one person who is in hospital, according to Waterloo Public Health.

The number of active cases is the most the area has seen since June 4.

Waterloo Public Health announced 14 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Monday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,706.

Of those cases, 520 have now been attributed to close contact, while 707 were connected to outbreaks and 83 to travel.

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There have also been 520 cases connected to community transmission, a number that has been as high as 537.

While many are as a result of community transmission, cases are included in this category until they are attributed to others.

Another six people have been cleared of the virus, bringing the total number of resolved cases to 1,706.

There are currently 10 outbreaks in the area but no new cases have been attributed to any of them.

There is one each at a high school, at a gym and in the food and beverage industry.

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There are also three at daycares, two at nursing homes and two in congregate settings.

The standard for declaring an outbreak generally involves at least two cases but in a high school, those cases must be connected. In daycares, nursing homes and congregate settings a single case will cause an outbreak to be declared.

Ontario is reporting 700 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, marking a new record for the most daily infections ever recorded in the province.

The previous high was on April 24 when 640 cases were reported, however, only 12,295 tests were completed on that day.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said more than 41,100 tests were processed in the last 24 hours. A total of 3,849,337 tests have been completed since the pandemic began. There are currently 49,586 people awaiting test results.

Roughly 1.7 per cent of Monday’s processed tests were positive for the coronavirus.

—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues