Waterloo Public Health announced 71 new positive tests for the coronavirus, the first time in nearly a week the agency has announced as many new COVID-19 cases.
This pushes the seven-day moving average of new cases to 54.9.
There have now been a total of 9,607 COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region since the first positive test occurred last March.
Another 43 people were also cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases to 8,930.
There are currently 463 active COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, including 27 who are in area hospitals, of which 13 are intensive care.
A new COVID-19-related death was reported at Chartwell Elmira on Thursday, lifting the death toll in the area up to 209.
This is the sixth death at the long-term care home since an outbreak was declared on Jan. 10.
Chartwell Elmira has seen 43 residents and 22 staff members test positive over the duration of the outbreak.
The outbreak is one of the 31 in the area with one on the seventh floor at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener being declared over.
Elsewhere, the province reported 1,563 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 273,660.
The higher daily case total comes amid the provincial government and Toronto Public Health’s migration and reconciling of data, which has been impacting daily counts for several days as noted in the fluctuation of daily numbers this week.
“Locally, there are 584 new cases in Toronto, 265 in Peel and 132 in York Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a tweet on Thursday.
The death toll in the province rose to 6,393 as 88 more deaths were reported.
—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues