Another COVID-19 case in outbreak stemming from event at Waterloo Region place of worship

A thirteenth COVID-19 case has been connected to the outbreak linked to an event held at a place of worship in the area, according to Waterloo Public Health.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region’s acting medical officer of health, says that there could be even more cases connected moving forward.

“In terms of the number of people who are potentially effected, there could be two dozen,” she told reporters on Friday.

Wang said the event was held indoors but continued to keep a tight lip on details such as where and why it was held.

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“We generally do not name individual facilities or work places unless we think there is a risk to the public or if there is a need for us to ask the public to self-identify,” she explained. “In this particular situation, it was an event that was held at a place of worship. Working together with the facility management, we were able to determine the contacts that we needed to get into contact with.”

The outbreak is one of nine which remain in the area after the one at Sunnyside – Castle Kilbride long-term care home was declared over.

There were no other changes reported in the eight other active outbreaks in Waterloo Region. That list includes four others at nursing homes, one at Wilfrid Laurier, one in a congregate setting and one connected to a Waterloo Region District School Board before-and-after care program.

Waterloo Public Health reported nine new positive tests for the coronavirus on Friday bringing the total number of cases in the area to 2,043.

On average, there have been 12.71 new cases reported per day over the past seven days.

Another nine people have also been cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases to 1,830.

There are currently 93 active COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region including eight people who are in hospital as a result of the virus. Both numbers are unchanged since Thursday’s report.

Elsewhere, the province reported 826 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the provincial total to 68,353.

According to Friday’s provincial report, 292 new cases were recorded in Toronto, 186 in Peel Region, 87 in Ottawa, 72 in York Region, and 38 in Durham Region.

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All other public health units in Ontario reported under 35 new cases.

The death toll in the province has risen to 3,080 as nine more deaths were reported. Wednesday and Thursday each reported nine deaths as well.

–With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues