On Thursday, Waterloo Public Health reported that there are now 148 people in area hospitals being treated for COVID-19 including 27 people who are in need of intensive care.
This is a hefty increase from Wednesday’s report when there were 131 patients with 21 needing intensive care. Last Thursday, those numbers were 99 and 15.
The agency reported that another 347 people tested positive for the virus, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 36,137.
The rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases has taken another fall, though, and now sits at 413.6. That said, the agency has warned that due to testing availability, case counts on its dashboard are likely lower than the actual number of cases in Waterloo Region.
Waterloo Public Health also reported that 31,866 people have now been cleared of the virus, which is an massive increase of 5,581 over Wednesday.
There was a similar downward spike in active cases earlier this week as a spokesperson told Global News that the recent surge from the Omnicron variant has prompted a change in how it counts resolved cases. It now considers cases to be resolved after 14 days as long as the person is not hospitalized.
The region is also down to 3,603 active cases and 75 active COVID-19 outbreaks with 39 of those outbreaks occurring in long-term-care or retirement homes, 27 in congregate settings and nine in area hospitals.
On the flip side, COVID-19 vaccinations continue to rise at a steady pace as there have now been 1,198,919 done in the area, which is an increase of 3,925 from Wednesday.
Another 3,134 area residents received a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, raising that total to 246,215.
A total of 468,689 area residents have also received two doses of vaccine, which is an increase of 494 from 24 hours earlier. This means that 77.44 per cent of the area’s population is considered fully vaccinated by provincial standards.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 4,061 people in hospital with COVID on Thursday, though just over half of them were initially admitted due to virus complications and the rest tested positive while being admitted for another medical issue.
There are 594 people in ICUs, which is up by five from the previous day. Around 81 per cent of those in intensive care with COVID were admitted because of the virus, while around 19 per cent were admitted for other reasons.
Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 7,757 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, though that is an underestimate of the true widespread transmission of the virus due to recent testing restrictions. The provincial case total now stands at 977,194.
The death toll in the province has risen to 10,801 as 75 more virus-related deaths were added. Officials noted the deaths are from a data catch-up and occurred over the span of 19 days.
– with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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