47 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo Region as death toll reaches 250

Correction: This story initially reported that there were 49 new cases reported on Monday by Waterloo Public Health when in fact there were 47.

Waterloo Public Health reported 47 new positive tests for COVID-19 on Monday, the lowest total it has announced in more than three weeks.

The last time the number was lower was on April 4, when there were 41 new cases reported.

It is a drastic drop after 118 cases were reported on Saturday and 107 on Sunday.

This lifts the total number of cases in the region to 13,947.

Another 82 have also been cleared of the virus, pushing the total number of resolved cases to 13,032.

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One new COVID-19-related death was also reported, lifting the death toll in Waterloo Region to 250.

“The individual was a male in his 80s,” medical officer of health Hsiu-Li Wang said in a statement issued to Global News.

“I wish to express my deep sympathy to the family and loved ones of the individual.”

These numbers combine to drop the active number of cases to 645.

There are now 70 people in area hospitals including 33 people who are in intensive care. A portion of those people are from hospitals in the GTA.

There was no change in the number of active COVID-19 outbreaks although there are now 19 cases attributed to an outbreak at a food processing plant.

While this crosses one threshold (number of cases) for Waterloo Public Health to name the location, it does not meet others so it remains unnamed.

Waterloo Region’s vaccine distribution task force says there have been 174,740 vaccinations in the area, which is 7,426 more than it reported on Friday.

The low number comes as the region’s largest clinic, which is located in Cambridge, was closed for the weekend as the task force waited for more vaccines to arrive from the province.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 3,510 new COVID-19 cases on Monday. The provincial total now stands at 448,861.

Monday’s case count is lower than Sunday’s 3,947 new infections and is the second day in a row cases have been lower than 4,000.

According to Monday’s report, 1,015 cases were recorded in Toronto, 909 in Peel Region, 391 in York Region, 206 in Ottawa and 244 in Durham Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 200 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 7,935 as 24 more deaths were recorded.

— With files from Global News’ Jess Patton