COVID-19: Waterloo Public Health reports 22 patients in area hospitals with virus

The COVID-19 situation at the three major hospitals in Kitchener and Cambridge continues to improve, as on Monday Waterloo Public Health reported that there were 22 patients there suffering from the virus, including 12 who were in need of intensive care.

Twenty-two is the lowest number of patients the hospitals have treated since the end of 2021.

That said, a new COVID-19 outbreak was reported at Grand River Hospital’s Freeport campus, which is one of seven active outbreaks in places of concern including four at hospitals.

Another new one was also announced in a congregate setting while three others came to an end including one at the Fairview Mennonite Home in Cambridge, another in a congregate setting and a third in the shelter system.

The outbreak in the shelter system had lasted for just under two months and had claimed the life of one person while 90 people had tested positive for the virus over its course.

2:15 What have been the experiences of Black British Columbians during the COVID-19 pandemic?

There were no new deaths reported by Waterloo Public Health on Monday, leaving the death toll at 400 including the 87 victims thus far this year.

The agency also reported that there were 136 new positive tests for the coronavirus, lifting the total number of cases recorded in the area since the pandemic began to 40,858.

This puts the rolling seven-day average number of new daily cases back to 49.3. A week ago, that number was 55.1, 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 174 people were also cleared of the virus, lifting the total number of resolved cases in the region to 39,973.

There are now 474 active cases in the area, an increase of 10 over Friday’s report.

The latest data released by the province on Sunday also said 247 people are currently receiving aid in an intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19.

Both the number of people in hospital and those in ICU dropped on Sunday compared with numbers reported a day earlier.

On Saturday, Ontario reported 795 people were in hospital, and 253 were in intensive care.

However, in a tweet Sunday morning, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott noted that not all hospitals report data on weekends.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 693 people in hospital with COVID on Monday with 249 in intensive care units.

This is up by nine hospitalizations and an increase of two for ICUs since the previous day, though officials noted not all hospitals reported updated figures due to the weekend.

Last Monday, there were 849 hospitalizations with 279 in ICU.

Meanwhile, Ontario also reported 1,074 new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, though that is an underestimate of the true widespread transmission of the virus due to testing restrictions. The provincial case total now stands at 1,114,284.

The death toll in the province has risen to 12,574 as four more virus-related deaths were added.

— with files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues