Number of hospitalizations drop as region reports 62 new COVID-19 cases Thursday

The number of people in Waterloo region hospitals with COVID-19 dropped by 13 on Thursday, public health reported on its dashboard.

There were 58 people in hospital as of Thursday, a drop from 71 reported Wednesday. There were 32 people in the intensive care unit, a drop of one from the day before.

The region reported 62 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. That brought the total number of cases in April to 2,181 and since the start of the pandemic to 14,131. Of those, 13,274 have been marked as resolved.

The region reported 586 active cases.

There were no new deaths reported Thursday.

There were 1,804 cases of COVID-19 that have screened positive for a variant of concern. Of those, 47 are the B117 variant first detected in the U.K. There was a rise of one case to a total of two that have now been confirmed as the B1351 variant first found in South Africa. There are also five cases of the P1 variant first detected in Brazil.

The remaining 1,750 cases require further testing to determine which variant it is.

Ontario reported 3,871 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, as total deaths in the province topped 8,000.

29 active outbreaks

There were 29 active outbreaks in the region with two at long-term care homes. One home has three cases in people who work there. The other home has three cases in people who work there and one new case in a person who lives there.

There are 23 outbreaks in workplaces:

• Four in retail stores: One with 10 cases, one with six cases and two with two cases each.
• Four at a trades workplace: One with three cases, three with two cases.
• Three at manufacturers: One with 15 cases, one with three cases and one with two cases.
• Three at construction workplaces: One with five cases, one with four cases and one with two cases.
• Two at food processors: One with 24 cases, one with seven cases.
• Two at automobile sales and service businesses: One with four cases, one with three cases.
• One at Waterloo Regional Police Service with five cases.
• One at a financial institution with four cases.
• One at a food and beverage service business with three cases.
• One at an office with two cases.
• One at a warehouse with two cases.

The other outbreaks were:

• One at a congregate setting with one case.
• One at Willowbrae Academy Cambridge with six cases.
• One at St. Mary's General Hospital. The number of cases was not reported.
• One in a Waterloo Region District School Board program with four cases.

38% of eligible people have first dose

The region reports there have been 193,368 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered and just over 38 per cent of the people aged 18 and over who are eligible for the vaccine have received at least the first dose. That's about 29.44 per cent of the entire population of the region.

There are more than 16,100 people who have been fully vaccinated, which is about 2.74 per cent of the entire population of the region.