A man in his 30s is among the latest victims as Waterloo Public Health reported two new COVID-19-related deaths in the region on Friday.
“Today we are reporting two deaths in our community related to COVID-19. The individuals were a male in his 60s and a male in his 30s,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated. “I wish to express my deep sympathy to the families of these individuals.”
Up until Friday’s announcement, all of the victims in the region in 2022 had been at least 50 years of age with a median age of 88.
The death toll in the area has now reached 372 including 13 victims reported over the first four days of February.
One of the victims is connected to the Region’s shelter system has been connected to a COVID-19 outbreak declared on Jan. 8. To date, 78 people have become infected.
There are now currently 59 active COVID-19 outbreaks including 32 connected to long-term-care or retirement settings, 14 involving congregate settings with the last 13 underway at hospitals.
The hospitals are also still caring for 98 COVID-19 patients, including 22 who are in need of intensive care.
Waterloo Public Health reported another 93 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Friday, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 38,855.
This drops the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases down to 130.71, well below the 204.7 a week earlier, although the numbers are considered an underestimation of actual community caseload since changes to testing availability have decreased the veracity of the totals.
Another 84 people were also cleared of the virus, lifting the number of resolved cases to 36,369.
This leaves the area with 1,427 active cases, a number which stood at 1,949 last Friday.
On the flip side, Waterloo Public Health also reported that there have now been 1,235,102 COVID-19 vaccinations given in the region, up 1,435 from Thursday’s report.
Another 1,094 residents got a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine while another 594 have gotten a second jab, and are therefore considered to be fully vaccinated.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 2,634 people in hospital with COVID on Friday, with 517 in intensive care units.
This is down by 163 hospitalizations and a decrease of 24 in ICUs since the previous day. Last Friday, there were 3,535 hospitalizations with 607 in ICU.
Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 4,047 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, 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 1,047,970.
The death toll in the province has risen to 11,711 as 60 more virus-related deaths were added.
– with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues