As COVID-19 cases spike, Waterloo region may not move to Step 2 with rest of Ontario

Waterloo region reported the highest number of new COVID-19 daily cases among the province's health districts Wednesday with 72.

The increasing number has prompted a warning from public health that the region may be left behind as the rest of Ontario reopens.

On Wednesday afternoon, the region's medical officer of health and the head of the vaccine distribution force sent out a joint statement warning residents to "assume that the delta variant is circulating widely in Waterloo region and that there are much higher case numbers of this variant than can be currently confirmed."

"If case rates do not decrease, we may not be able to move to step two with the rest of the province," the letter continues.

The letter goes on to say the region is asking for more vaccines from the province and accelerating second doses through new late evening clinics, mobile teams and public vaccination clinics. 

The new cases made up 18.75 per cent of the 384 new cases reported for the entire province and tops Toronto, which reported 54 cases on Wednesday.

One new death of a person with the virus was also reported Wednesday, a woman in her 60s. It brought the total number of COVID-related deaths in the region to 259.

There were 45 people in the region's hospitals, a drop of seven from Tuesday, with 15 in the intensive care unit.

Ontario's overall COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been declining in recent weeks, but Waterloo region's medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said Wednesday, "Waterloo region is experiencing an increasing number of cases, hospitalizations and outbreaks, believed to be due to the spread of the delta variant."

The region, which includes the cities of Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge, reported 494 active cases as of Wednesday afternoon.

Local officials have also noted a high number of hospitalizations and intensive care admissions. Wang said 78.6 per cent of people currently in hospital have not been vaccinated, while 21.4 per cent were partially vaccinated.

Delta variant

During a board of health meeting Wednesday, Wang said people need to know "delta is circulating broadly" in the community.

"The percentage of our cases which are delta is believed to be much higher than the number of cases currently confirmed," Wang said. "I expect delta will quickly become the predominant strain circulating in Waterloo region."

As of June 16, there were 32 confirmed cases of the variant in Waterloo Region — the third-highest count in the province, after Peel and Toronto. Provincial health officials have noted, however, that the process of confirming delta variant cases is slow and cases may actually be higher.

An outbreak among homeless people in a congregate setting amounted to 87 cases as of Tuesday, the region said. Wang noted that outbreak had seen "a large number of cases, over a short period of time when compared to other outbreaks."

Wang noted the majority of cases in that outbreak, 87.5 per cent, were people who were unvaccinated. As well, 9.7 per cent of people in the outbreak were partially vaccinated with a single dose and 2.8 per cent of people were recently vaccinated with a second dose but it had not yet fully kicked in. 

Hotspot

Ontario's science advisers have said the delta variant is about 50 per cent more transmissible than the alpha variant, which was the variant first detected in the U.K. and drove the punishing third wave of infections this spring. People with one vaccine dose are also less protected against the delta variant.

The province designated Waterloo region as a delta hot spot last week, prioritizing people there for accelerated second vaccine doses. However, the region warned that those requesting a new second-dose date might be in for a long wait.

"Depending on the volume of requests and vaccine supply, it may take two to four weeks to be contacted about an earlier second-dose appointment," a Tuesday news release said. "Please be patient."

Bill Campbell, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Health, says the province is working with public health units like Waterloo Region's "to fully utilize their vaccine inventory and will provide additional doses to delta hotspots where local inventory has been fully utilized."

Ontario Health is also monitoring hospital bed occupancy rates in the region.

"With an increased supply of vaccines, we continue to make it easier than ever to receive a vaccine to help protect those most at risk against COVID-19 variants, stop the spread and protect our hospital capacity," Campbell said.

Variants in region

There were 3,468 cases that have screened positive for a variant of concern in Waterloo region. Of those:

• 3,054 are confirmed to be the B117 variant, or alpha variant, first detected in the U.K.
• 60 are the P1 variant first detected in Brazil.
• 37 are the B1617 variant, or the delta variant, first detected in India.
• 11 are the B1351 variant first detected in South Africa.
• 306 have tested positive for a mutation but further testing is required.

9 active outbreaks

There were nine active outbreaks in the region, a rise of two from the previous day.

There were six at workplaces:

• Two at trades and related service businesses: One with three cases, one with two cases.
• One in a general office setting with five cases.
• One at Waterloo Regional Police Service central division in Kitchener with two cases.
• One at a chiropody office with two cases.
• One at a food and beverage service business with two cases.

The other outbreaks were:

• One at a congregate setting of people who are homeless across multiple locations in Kitchener and Waterloo with 87 cases.
• One at long-term care home The Village at Winston Park with six cases: Three in staff members, three in people who live at the home.
• One at Trillium Bilingual Montessori School child care with two cases.

Local MPPs react to rise in cases

There were rising worries about the delta variant in Waterloo region and two local NDP MPPs voiced their concerns to the provincial government.

On Monday, Catherine Fife and Laura Mae Lindo, members of provincial parliament serving Waterloo and Kitchener Centre, wrote a joint letter to Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliot, expressing their concerns regarding the rise of COVID-19 cases in the region and the lack of speed in vaccine rollouts.

"Our offices have been flooded with constituent concerns regarding the very alarming trends locally and the slow vaccine rollout that is leaving too many constituents unprotected," the letter said, adding the region "has not received an equitable allotment of vaccine doses."

During Question Period at Queen's Park on Tuesday, Fife confronted Elliot with the same concerns. Elliot responded by pointing out the province has accelerated second doses in noted hot spots such as Halton, Peel, Porcupine, Toronto, Waterloo region, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph and York public health units.

"We are concerned about it, we are dealing with it, particularly in Waterloo," Elliot said.

On Wednesday, Fife and Lindo sent a second letter to the province after the news Waterloo region marked the highest number of cases in the province.

"Hotspots aren't getting the extra doses or extra support they need, despite the increased health risk. Without the additional resources to our region, we cannot accelerate first and second doses like we need to," the letter said.

"Constituents are telling us that they are waiting longer than their neighbours in other communities, and many are travelling out of the region to secure a vaccine. More efforts need to be made to make vaccines available locally, perhaps through additional pop-up clinics like those in Peel and Toronto."