The number of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region rose by 139 on Monday, bringing the total number of local cases to 6,346.
The latest update pushed the number of active cases to 658, the highest total ever.
The region’s total number of cases includes 5,520 resolved cases and 167 deaths. The death toll didn’t increase on Monday, but has done so substantially over the past month; on Dec. 4, there had been 127 COVID-19-related deaths in the region.
Public health officials also reported that the number of active outbreaks had dropped by five to 32 on Monday.
According to the region’s online COVID-19 dashboard, the region is currently experiencing a positivity rate of 5.5 per cent. The median reproduction estimate—or “the expected number of cases generated by one case in the susceptible population”—is 0.9, the region’s dashboard showed Monday.
Across the province there were more than 3,200 new cases of COVID-19 reported on Monday, along with 29 more deaths.
It’s the third time that Ontario’s daily case count exceeded 3,000. The 3,270 infections reported on Monday fell short of the previous single-day record, which was set on Saturday at 3,363.
Ontario saw its seven-day case average go up by over 400 from the week before, rising from 2,186 to 2,617.
There have been 194,232 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, including 164,775 resolved cases and 4,679 deaths.
