Waterloo Public Health officially reported two COVID-19 outbreaks connected to hockey clubs located in Cambridge on Tuesday.
The agency said there were 20 cases linked to the Cambridge Roadrunners Girls’ Hockey Association with another 13 linked to the Hespeler Minor Hockey Association.
Over the weekend, Waterloo Public Health said members of teams from the organizations had contracted the virus while playing in two out-of-town tournaments.
On Monday it said the teams were among nine sports squads in the area that had contracted the virus, with four of those cases having been confirmed to have been the Omicron variant, while another 10 were suspected to be.
Global News has reached out to Waterloo Public Health to confirm whether all of the cases were among the two teams and were of the Omicron variant.
The agency also announced new outbreaks at an unnamed auto sales location and at an office, while others came to an end at Forest Glen Public School in New Hamburg and another connected to ringette. This means the area once again has 15 COVID-19 outbreaks.
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In addition, Waterloo Public Health announced the 310th COVID-19-related death in the area since the pandemic began.
“Today we are reporting one death in our community related to COVID-19,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.
“The individual was a male in his 80s. I wish to express my deep sympathy to the family and loved ones of this individual.”
Thirty more positive tests for the coronavirus were also reported, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area to 21,535.
The rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases takes a tiny drop down to 51.1.
Another 65 people were cleared of the virus, pushing the number of resolved cases in the area up to 20,789.
These totals drop the number of active COVID-19 cases to 430, a day after having stood at 463.
There are now 14 people in area hospitals suffering from COVID-19, including five people who are in need of intensive care.
On the other end of the spectrum, Waterloo Public Health reported that there have now been 962,848 vaccinations done in the area, which is 3,790 more than it reported a day earlier.
A large portion of these appear to be people getting a third dose of vaccine as 40,622 residents have now done so, which is 3,271 more than was announced Monday.
Ontario is reporting 1,429 new COVID cases on Tuesday, as case counts continue to rise over the last week and test positivity has reached a seven-month high. The provincial case total now stands at 635,112.
For comparison, last Tuesday saw 928 new cases and the previous Tuesday saw 687. Over the last three days, there were 1,536 new cases reported Monday, 1,476 on Sunday and 1,607 on Saturday.
However, as infections surge, patients with COVID in intensive care units have remained relatively stable but are on an overall slow rise.
Of the 1,429 new cases recorded, the data showed 493 were unvaccinated people, 33 were partially vaccinated people, 809 were fully vaccinated people and for 94 people the vaccination status was unknown.
According to Tuesday’s report, 239 cases were recorded in Toronto, 128 in York Region, 120 in Ottawa, 103 in Peel Region, 85 in the Kingston area and 84 in Middlesex-London. All other local public health units reported fewer than 80 new cases in the provincial report.
The death toll in the province has risen to 10,084 as five more deaths were reported.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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