Waterloo Public Health reported one new COVID-19-related death on Thursday, lifting the region’s January death toll to 34.
“Today we are reporting one death in our community related to COVID-19. The individual was a female in her 90s,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.
“I wish to express my deep sympathy to the family of this individual.”
The victim was a resident of the Sunnyside Home Long-Term-Care in Kitchener, Ont. There have now been two deaths connected to a COVID-19 outbreak which began at the home on Dec. 29 and has now seen 93 staff members and 34 residents test positive for the virus.
The outbreak is one of 73 active in the area, including 35 at long-term-care and retirement homes, 26 in congregate settings and 12 at area hospitals.
The three area hospitals currently have 144 patients who are suffering from COVID-19, 22 of whom are in need of intensive care.
Waterloo Public Health reported another 213 positive tests for COVID-19, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 37,725.
The rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases continues to drop as it now sits at 226.9.
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.
Another 357 people were also cleared of the virus, pushing the total number of resolved cases in the area to 34,918.
This leaves the area with exactly 2,000 active COVID-19 cases, down from 2,162 on Wednesday and 3,603 last Thursday.
On the flip side, Waterloo Public Health says there have now been 1,218,315 COVID-19 vaccinations in the area, which is an increase of 2,888 over Wednesday’s total.
Another 2,031 area residents have received a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine, pushing the total in the area to 260,036.
A total of 799 residents got their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine as that total rises to 473,222, which means that 78.19 per cent of area residents are now considered to be fully vaccinated.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 3,645 people in hospital with COVID on Thursday, with 599 in intensive care units.
This is down by 371 hospitalizations and a decrease of nine in ICUs since the previous day.
Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 5,852 new lab-confirmed 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 1,016,099.
The death toll in the province has risen to 11,230 as 70 more virus-related deaths were added.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said the 70 deaths occurred in the past 19 days.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues