Deadly COVID-19 outbreak at Kitchener retirement home declared over

The deadliest COVID-19 outbreak to hit Waterloo Region during the second wave of the pandemic has come to an end.

The outbreak at the Chartwell Westmount Long Term Care Residence, which saw 19 people suffer COVID-19-related deaths, was declared over on Wednesday, according to Waterloo Public Health.

The outbreak, which began on Dec. 27, 2020, saw 71 staff members and 74 residents test positive during its more than two-month span.

It was one of four outbreaks in the area that were declared over, including a recent outbreak at St. John Catholic Elementary School which saw the school forced to close for over a week.

There were 18 cases at the Kitchener school since Feb. 20, according to the Waterloo Catholic District School Board website, with 14 of those being linked to the outbreak.

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The other two outbreaks that ended are connected to congregate settings.

This leaves the area with 21 active outbreaks, the lowest number of outbreaks since 2020.

Waterloo Public Health announced 32 more positive tests for the coronavirus on Thursday, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 11,158.

This is the third straight day with less than 40 new cases, and also pushes the rolling seven-day average number of new cases down to 41.1

There were also 27 people cleared of the virus, pushing the total number of resolved cases to 10,585.

This leaves the area with 324 active COVID-19 cases including 34 people who are in area hospitals as a result of the virus.

Ontario is reporting 1,092 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 313,520.

Thursday’s case count is lower than Wednesday’s, which saw 1,316 new infections. On Tuesday, 1,185 new cases were recorded, with 1,631 on Monday (a portion of those cases were older ones recently inputted into the provincial data system).

According to Thursday’s provincial report, 293 cases were recorded in Toronto, 199 in Peel Region, 79 in York Region and 64 in Ottawa.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 50 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,109 as 10 more deaths were recorded.