Waterloo Public Health reported its largest number of new COVID-19 cases in one day since January on Tuesday.
The agency says there have been another 121 positive tests for the coronavirus, lifting the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area to 12,825.
This is the highest total Waterloo Public Health has reported since Jan. 21 when there were 125 new COVID-19 cases announced.
This raises the rolling seven-day average number of news daily cases to 77.9.
In addition, the agency says another 55 people have been cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases to 11,973.
There were no new COVID-19-related deaths announced on Tuesday, leaving the death toll in the area at 245 including three in April.
This leaves the area with 592 active COVID-19 cases which is the highest total Waterloo Region has seen since Jan. 29 when there were 601 cases.
There are currently 30 people in area hospitals due to COVID-19 including 12 who are in intensive care.
There was a new outbreak reported at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener on the fourth floor on Monday, one of three new ones in the area. The others were reported in an office setting and at Highland Public School in Cambridge.
Three outbreaks were declared over including the one at the University of Waterloo which had been connected to a series of get-togethers students held in early March. There were almost 100 cases connected to the initial cluster which also caused an outbreak at Wilfrid Laurier University.
The two other outbreaks that ended were in construction settings.
Three minus three means Waterloo Region still has 16 active COVID-19 outbreaks.
The region’s vaccine distribution task force says 119,986 vaccinations have been done in the region, 3,448 more than what it reported on Monday.
At least 17.73 per cent of Waterloo Region residents have now received at least one dose of vaccine.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 3,670 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the provincial total to 394,679.
According to Tuesday’s provincial report, 1,016 cases were recorded in Toronto, 613 in Peel Region, 519 in York Region, 214 in Ottawa, 196 in Durham Region, 161 in Hamilton, and 157 in Halton Region.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 150 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 7,582 as 15 more deaths were recorded.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues