Waterloo Public Health reported five new COVID-19-related deaths on Monday, raising the death toll in the area to 377.
“Today we are reporting 5 deaths in our community related to COVID-19: a male in his 90s, a male in his 80s, a female in her 80s, a female in her 60s, and a male in his 60s,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.
“I wish to express my deep sympathy to the families of these individuals.”
There have now been 18 victims reported in the area over the first seven days of February.
Area hospitals also remain relatively crowded with COVID-19 patients as they are currently housing 84, including 19 who are in need of intensive care.
Waterloo Public Health also reported another 264 positive tests for the coronavirus on Monday, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 39,119.
This drops the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases to 112.4. A week ago, that number was 174, but the testing numbers are considered an underestimation of actual community caseload since changes to testing availability have decreased the veracity of the totals.
On a positive note, another 976 people have been cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases in the area to 37,345.
This leaves the area with 1,285 active COVID-19 cases, a number which stood at 1,708 last Monday.
The number of active COVID-19 outbreaks continues to decline as there are now 51 remaining, including 27 in long-term-care or retirement homes, 14 in congregate settings with 10 being in area hospitals.
On the flip side, Waterloo Public Health’s dashboard shows there have now been 1,240,751 COVID-19 vaccinations done in the region, which is 5,649 more than Friday.
Another 3,071 area residents got a third dose of vaccine, lifting the total to 274,048 while another 2,527 citizens got a second dose, pushing that total to 481,694, which is about 79.59 per cent of all area residents.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 2,155 people in hospital with COVID on Monday with 486 in intensive care units.
This is down by 75 hospitalizations and unchanged for ICUs since the previous day, though officials noted not all hospitals reported updated figures due to the weekend.Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 2,088 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, 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 1,056,149.
The death toll in the province has risen to 11,836 as 11 more virus-related deaths were added that occurred over the past nine days.
— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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