12 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo Region as active case count sits at 138

For the second day in a row, Waterloo Public Health is reporting fewer than 15 new COVID-19 cases in the area.

The agency announced 12 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in the area to 18,808.

This pushes the rolling seven-day average number of new cases up slightly to 17.4. That number came in at 17.6 a week ago.

Another 11 people have also been cleared of the virus, pushing the number of resolved cases in the region up to 18,378.

It has been now been six days since Waterloo Public Health reported a new COVID-19-related death, which leaves the death toll standing at 288, including six victims this month.

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The area is back up to 138 active cases, a number that was reported to be 137 a week earlier.

There are currently 13 people in area hospitals as a result of COVID-19, including seven patients who are in need of intensive care.

The region’s COVID-19 vaccination task force reports there have now been 812,978 vaccinations in the area, which is 1,539 more than it announced Monday.

In addition, another 1,046 area residents were added to the total number of those who are fully vaccinated, which now stands at 393,536.

This means that 66.83 per cent of area residents are now fully vaccinated, a number that climbs to 77.61 per cent when you only count those who are eligible.

In total, 73.24 per cent of area residents have had at least a jab of a vaccine, which increases to 85.05 per cent when considering just the eligible population.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 486 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a dip in the count after the past several days saw case counts above 600. The provincial case total now stands at 560,637.

Of the 486 new cases recorded, the data showed 279 were unvaccinated people, 41 were partially vaccinated people, 114 were fully vaccinated people and for 52 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Tuesday’s report, 128 cases were recorded in Toronto, 83 in Peel Region, 47 in Windsor-Essex and 45 each in Hamilton and York Region.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 45 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,471 as 18 more deaths were recorded. However, the Ministry of Health said due to a data cleanup, 16 of the deaths occurred more than two months ago.

—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues