Waterloo Public Health reported more than 80 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time on Saturday while also announcing a death for the third time in the last week.
The agency reported 86 new positive tests for the coronavirus raising the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area to 3,448.
“With our dashboard update today we are hitting another unfortunate milestone of 86 new cases,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said in a statement.
“This will be our highest daily increase that we have reported since the beginning of the pandemic.”
This is the second time in four days the area has set a new standard for positive coronavirus tests as 78 were announced on Wednesday.
Wang said the 125th COVID-19 victim in Waterloo Region was a woman in her 80s who was in hospital and had underlying conditions.
“I am deeply saddened to hear of another death in our community where COVID-19 is thought to have been a contributing factor,” she said. “I wish to express my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones.”
Another 48 people were cleared of the virus raising the total number of resolved cases to 2,824.
This pushes the number of active COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region up to 496 including eight people in ICU and another 21 also in area hospitals.
Wang also noted that the Waterloo Public Health was continuing to see more and more outbreaks occur in workplace settings.
“We are also continuing to see an increase of outbreaks in various workplace settings and wish to remind people to follow public health practices (physical distancing, hand washing, masking and staying home when sick) including in spaces that are employee-only such as lunch and break rooms where we most often see spread,” she said.
On Saturday, Waterloo Public Health announced three new outbreaks in the area raising the total number to 25.
The outbreaks were connected to and industrial sales and service setting where nine people have tested positive, auto sales and service with two cases and in the trades with three more positive tests.
An outbreak which began on Nov. 20 in a manufacturing setting has come to an end after the three people who tested positive were cleared of the virus.
Ontario reported 1,822 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 113,038.
It’s the second day in a row the province has reported more than 1,800 new cases. On Friday, 1,855 were reported which was the largest single-day increase in cases for Ontario since the pandemic began.
Twenty-nine more deaths were also announced on Saturday, bringing the provincial death toll to 3,624.
*With files from Global News’ Ryan Rocca
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