More than 10,000 COVID-19 vaccinations in Waterloo Region Thursday

A record 10,358 COVID-19 vaccinations were given in the area on Thursday, according to Waterloo Region’s vaccine distribution task force.

The agency says 502,690 COVID-19 vaccinations have now been given in Waterloo Region since the beginning of the pandemic.

Once again, a large portion of the new vaccinations saw people receiving a second dose as the task force reports there have now been 118,853 residents who are fully vaccinated, 8,882 more than the previous day.

This means that just over 20 per cent (20.18) of area residents are fully vaccinated, while 64.04 per cent have received one dose of a vaccine.

Almost 75 per cent (74.37) of those who are eligible to be vaccinated have had one dose of a vaccine.

On the flip side, Waterloo Public Health reported its lowest number of new cases in more than two weeks.

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It says 35 more people have tested positive for the coronavirus, raising the total number of cases in the area to 17,304.

This drops the seven-day rolling average number of new cases to 55.7, a figure that stood at 63.4 a week earlier.

Another 52 people have also been cleared of the virus, raising the total number of resolved cases to 16,540.

After two COVID-19-related deaths were reported on Thursday, none were reported Friday, leaving the death toll in the area at 262, including six in June.

The area is down to 485 active cases, including 60 individuals in area hospitals as a result of the virus.

There are also 27 people in intensive care units in the area, a number the St. Mary’s General Hospital president says has caused local hospitals to transfer at least one patient to a London hospital.

Elsewhere, Ontario is reporting 256 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as the province crushes another single-day record for most vaccinations. The provincial case total now stands at 543,571.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,101 as two more deaths were recorded.

As of 8 p.m. on Thursday, more than 13.5 million total COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered. That marked a new record increase of 246,393 vaccines (27,611 for a first shot and 218,782 for a second shot) in the last day.

There are more than 3.7 million people fully immunized with two doses, which is 30.9 per cent of the adult population. First-dose adult coverage sits at 76.9 per cent.

—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues