Waterloo Public Health reported two new COVID-19-related deaths on Wednesday, lifting the death toll in the area to 387.
“Today we are reporting two deaths in our community related to COVID-19. One individual was a male in his 60s. The other individual was a male in his 40s,” 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 74 fatalities reported in 2022, including 28 so far this month.
Waterloo Public Health also reported another 108 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Wednesday, lifting the total number of COVID cases in the region to 39,858.
This lifts the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases back up to 78.6. A week ago, that number was 102, but the testing numbers are considered an underestimation of actual community caseload since changes to testing availability have decreased the veracity of the totals.
The area is down to 877 active COVID-19 cases after it reported 903 on Tuesday. A week ago, there were 1,098 active cases in the region.
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There are also now only 24 active COVID-19 outbreaks in high-risk settings, with 11 being linked to long-term-care or retirement homes, eight being in the three area hospitals and five in congregate settings.
The hospitals are still caring for 65 patients suffering from COVID-19 including 16 who are in need of intensive care.
The region made a number of changes to its dashboard this week including eliminating the number of resolved cases as well as only updating the vaccination page twice a week, so those numbers were not available on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Ontario reported 1,403 people in hospital with COVID on Wednesday, with 364 in intensive care units as overall figures continue to trend downwards.
Hospitalizations dropped by 147 and patients in ICUs were down by 20 since the previous day. Last Wednesday, there were 2,059 hospitalizations with 449 in ICU.
Meanwhile, the province also reported 2,532 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, 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 1,078,610.
The death toll in the province has risen to 12,167 as 47 more virus-related deaths were added. A ministry of health spokesperson said 46 of the deaths occurred over the past 30 days. One death was from more than a month ago.
– with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues
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