The number of COVID-19 cases with a variant of concern took a dramatic jump in Sunday’s update from Waterloo Public Health.
There are now 90 in the region, 24 hours after the number stood at 68.
Ten of those 90 are confirmed to be of the U.K. strain, while the other 80 remain under investigation.
There are two other COVID-19 variants of concern under watch in Ontario, with one being first reported in South Africa and the other from Brazil.
The region’s top doctor, Hsiu-Li Wang, told the Board of Health on Wednesday that the variants are expected to be the dominant strains in the area next month.
Waterloo Public Health announced 50 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Sunday, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 10,702.
With that news, the rolling seven-day average of new cases takes a slight drop to 49.
The agency also reported that another 37 people have been cleared of the virus, pushing the total number of resolved cases to 10,049.
After three new COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Saturday, none were announced Sunday, leaving the death toll in the area at 228. Twenty-four of those occurred in February.
The number of active cases rose for the fourth straight day and now stands at 410.
A number of active COVID-19 outbreaks came to an end, including one at Columbia Forest in Kitchener, which had a case linked to the U.K. strain.
In addition, an outbreak at École Secondary Catholic Père-René-De-Galinée in Cambridge was declared over two days after being declared.
There are currently 23 active outbreaks in Waterloo Region.
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