Another 27 COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo Region on Wednesday

After several days of reporting fewer than 15 new COVID-19 cases, Waterloo Public Health reported 27 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Wednesday.

This lifts the total number of cases in the area to 19,672 while also boosting the rolling seven-day average daily number of new cases back up to 18.4. A week ago, that number was 22.

There were also another 16 people cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases in Waterloo Region up to 19,321.

For the third straight day, no new COVID-19-related deaths were reported in the area, leaving the death toll at 300 including one victim in October.

This causes the number of active cases to pop back up to 138, after having dropped to 218 on Tuesday.

There are still four people who are in area hospitals as a result of the virus, all of whom are in intensive care.

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There are also still six active COVID-19 outbreaks after one came to an end at Glencairn Public School as another has begun at an unnamed fitness facility.

On the flip side of things, the pace of vaccinations in the area continues to slow, as one might expect given the number of people who are already vaccinated.

Waterloo Public Health says there have now been 868,343 vaccinations done in the area, which is 859 more than reported on Tuesday.

The agency also says that 429,556 residents have now had two jabs of the needle which is 623 more than it reported 24 hours earlier.

This means that 72.94 per cent of all Waterloo Region residents are now fully vaccinated, a number which climbs to 84.71 per cent when discounting those who are ineligible to be vaccinated.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 476 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the second day in a row the count is under 500. The provincial case total now stands at 589,517.

Of the 476 new cases recorded, the data showed 294 were unvaccinated people, 13 were partially vaccinated people, 141 were fully vaccinated people and for 28 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Wednesday’s report, 84 cases were recorded in Toronto, 44 in York Region, 44 in Windsor-Essex, 39 in Peel Region, 33 in Hamilton, and 25 in Middlesex-London.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 25 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,771 as 14 more deaths were recorded including four deaths that occurred more than a month ago due to data cleanup.

— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues