COVID-19 death toll in Waterloo reaches 400 after another victim announced

Waterloo Public Health announced a new COVID-19-related death on Friday, lifting the death toll across the region since the pandemic began to 400.

“Today we are reporting one death in our community related to COVID-19,” Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, stated.

“The individual was a female in her 50s. I wish to express my deep sympathy to the family of this individual.”

The agency also reported that there are still 24 people in the three area hospitals as a result of COVID-19 including 10 patients in need of intensive care. Both numbers have fallen by one since Thursday’s report.

The hospitals still also have three of the area’s eight active COVID-19 outbreaks in areas of concern with three others being in congregate settings and the remaining two being in long-term-care or retirement homes.

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The eight outbreaks are in stark contrast to a month earlier when there were 59 outbreaks active in areas of concern across Waterloo Region.

The agency reported another 54 positive tests for the coronavirus on Friday, lifting the total number of cases in the area to 40,722.

This puts the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases back to 46.7. A week ago, that number was 59.4, but the testing numbers are considered an underestimation of actual community caseload since changes to testing availability have decreased the veracity of the totals.

Another 47 people were also cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases in the region to 39,848.

This leaves the area with 464 active COVID-19 cases, a slight increase from Thursday when it was 461 – the lowest total the region has announced since mid-December 2021.

This is down by 13 hospitalizations and a decrease of five in ICUs since the previous day. Last Friday, there were 1,003 hospitalizations with 297 in ICU.

Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 2,085 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, though that is an underestimate of the true widespread transmission of the virus due to testing restrictions. The provincial case total now stands at 1,109,493.

The death toll in the province has risen to 12,525 as 28 more virus-related deaths were added. Friday’s report indicated 26 of the deaths occurred over the past month. The other two deaths occurred more than a month ago.

– with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues