Waterloo Public Health reported a COVID-19-related death for the fourth time in the past two days on Thursday.
All four of the deceased have been over the age of 70 with underlying health issues who were in hospital, according to Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, Waterloo Region’s medical officer of health.
“Deaths, as well as outbreaks and hospitalizations, are lagging indicators, which means we start to see increases in these areas a few weeks after we have had a rapid acceleration of cases,” she said.
The COVID-19 death toll in the region has now reached 131.
There have now been six deaths reported over the first 10 days of December.
On Wednesday, it was reported that three women over the age of 70 with underlying health issues who had contracted the virus had died.
The agency reported 63 more positive tests for the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases in the area to 4,236.
This is the seventh straight day there have been fewer than 70 new cases reported in a day, which follows a stretch in which there were more than 70 cases in seven of eight days.
Another 82 people have been cleared of the virus, raising the total number of resolved cases in the area to 3,718.
This leaves the area with just 382 active cases, a steep drop from the 573 cases that were active in the region on Dec. 4.
There are still 24 active outbreaks in the area with no new ones being reported and none being declared over either.
The only major change was in the outbreak at the Village of Winston Park. The Kitchener nursing home has now seen seven residents test positive in addition to the three staff members reported positive.
Ontario reported 1,983 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, a new single-day high, bringing the provincial total to 134,783.
According to Thursday’s provincial report, 515 cases were recorded in Peel Region, 496 in Toronto, 208 in York Region and 112 in Windsor-Essex.
All other public health units in Ontario reported under 100 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 3,871 as 35 more deaths were reported.
—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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