Waterloo Region’s vaccination numbers took a big jump on Tuesday as it appears a number of out-of-town inoculations have been added to the tally.
The COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force’s dashboard shows that more people have been jabbed outside of the area than in Waterloo Region which was not the case up until Tuesday.
It shows that 541,148 residents have received one dose of a vaccine, while 538,725 vaccinations have occurred in Waterloo Region.
The gap grows even further when considering those who are fully vaccinated as the numbers clock in at 151,233 and 145,256 respectively.
While there are now 8,714 more vaccinations than what the task force reported on Monday, the number of fully vaccinated people increased by 9,883.
A task force spokesperson says changes were made Tuesday which captured more records for area residents.
“The vaccine dashboard refresh on June 29 incorporated some data quality work which was completed to accurately capture more records of Waterloo Region residents who were not previously allocated to a public health unit region,” Sharon Ord said in an email.
Regardless of the reason, the new numbers are a big boost to the overall numbers in the area as 25.68 per cent of all residents have now been fully vaccinated, while 66.21 per cent have now received at least one dose.
There were 41 new COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday by Waterloo Public Health, raising the total number to 17,524.
This is just the fourth time in the last three weeks that fewer than 50 new cases have been reported in one day in the area.
Another 55 people were also cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of local resolved cases to 16,785.
There were no new COVID-19-related deaths reported for the fifth straight day, leaving the death toll in the area at 262, including six people this month.
This leaves the area with 457 active COVID-19 cases, a number that stood at 522 a week ago.
There are currently 56 people in area hospitals as a result of COVID-19, including 25 patients in intensive care.
There was a new COVID-19 outbreak reported at the Marian Residence Retirement Home in Cambridge, raising the total number to 19.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 299 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, however, officials said several cases from the count are from last year. The provincial case total now stands at 544,713.
“Due to a data review and clean-up, today’s numbers include 90 cases from 2020 that have been included in Toronto’s case count,” the Ministry of Health said.
According to Tuesday’s report, 130 cases were recorded in Toronto, 69 in Waterloo Region and 20 in Peel Region.
All other local public health units reported fewer than 15 new cases in the provincial report.
The numbers vary between the province and the region as the data is collected at different points in the day.
The death toll in the province has risen to 9,154 as 25 more deaths were recorded. However, the Ministry of Health said about 19 deaths were from previous months and were included in Tuesday’s count.
—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues