Health officials in Waterloo Region recorded 12 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, marking the lowest daily increase since late October.
Among the new cases, nine were linked to Monday and the remainder were from previous reporting periods.
Tuesday’s update marks the lowest daily total since Oct. 27, when nine cases were reported.
Active cases also dipped in the past day, down by 39 to 318.
The new cases bring Waterloo Region’s cumulative caseload to 17,802, including 17,201 resolved infections and 272 deaths.
Some 522,439 COVID-19 tests have been processed since the pandemic began. As of Tuesday, Waterloo Region’s positivity rate sits at 5.2 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent on Friday.
The reproductive rate of the virus in the community dropped from 0.9 on Friday to 0.8 on Tuesday.
HOSPITALIZATIONS, OUTBREAKS RISE
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 increased by two in the past 24 hours, up to 48. Of those, 24 are receiving treatment in area intensive care units.
Another three outbreaks were also declared in the past day. There are now 21 active outbreaks in Waterloo Region, with most in workplace or facility settings.
On Monday, Grand River Hospital declared outbreaks on both the Clinical Teaching Unit and in Food and Nutrition Services. Five cases have been linked to the two outbreaks.
The hospital says it is implementing enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols on the units.
MORE DELTA CASES CONFIRMED
Health officials confirmed another large batch of cases as variants of concern, bringing the total number of variant cases past the 4,000 mark.
A total of 4,012 cases have now been identified as variants of concern.
In Tuesday’s update, 83 more cases were confirmed as variants, with most logged as the Delta variant, with 82.
The region’s variant breakdown is as follows:
3,100 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
12 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred to as B.1.315
61 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
525 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
314 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
