People need to act to drive region's COVID-19 case rates lower: Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang

People in Waterloo region must continue to follow public health measures to drive down the rate of new COVID-19 cases, the local medical officer of health says.

"Trends are moving in the right direction but our rates remain high," Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told regional councillors during an update at Tuesday's committee of the whole meeting.

"We continue to have a significant number of COVID cases in our local hospitals both acute as well as those who are no longer infections but remain in serious condition requiring ongoing hospitalization or ICU care," Wang said.

Wang said if the region can continue to reduce its case rate, it will lead to fewer people needing to be hospitalized or dying.

As well, Wang noted, "the lower our rates when we emerge from the provincial shutdown, the less restrictions we'll be under."

43 new cases

Waterloo region reported 43 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.

That continues a two-day drop in cases since this past weekend, when Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 105 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, and 81 on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, the province as a whole saw the fewest new COIVD-19 cases in almost seven weeks.

The 43 new cases reported Tuesday brings the total number of active cases in the region to 445.

Since the pandemic began in March 2020, there have been 14,898 positive cases of COVID-19. Of that number, 14,181 cases have been resolved.

The number of people hospitalized with the novel coronavirus in Waterloo region dropped from 47 to 44 on Tuesday; all but 10 of those people are being cared for in the hospitals' intensive care units.

There were no new deaths reported Tuesday.

So far, public health has found 2,432 cases that have screened positive for a variant or mutation of the virus. Of those: 

• 2,135 have been identified as the B117 variant first detected in the U.K.
• 17 have been identified as the P1 variant first detected in Brazil.
• Three have been identified as the B1351 variant first detected in South Africa.
• 277 require more testing to determine the variant.

18 active outbreaks

There are 18 active outbreaks in the region with two at long-term care homes. They include: 

• Two cases at Forest Heights Long-Term Care (Hewson Unit): one staff member and one non-staff member.
• Four cases at The Village at University Gates LTC (Hagey Unit): three staff members and one non-staff member. 

There were 11 outbreaks at workplaces, which included: 

• Two at retail stores: One with six cases, one with three cases.
• One at a food processor with 31 cases.
• One at a manufacturing workplace with 23 cases.
• One at Waterloo Regional Police Service with seven cases.
• One at a warehouse with six cases.
• Two at an automobile sales and service businesses: One with six cases, another with four cases.
• One at a medical office with five cases.
• One at a pharmacy with two cases.
• One at a food and beverage services workplace with two cases.

The other outbreaks included:

• One at Coronation Early Learning Child Care with three cases.
• One at Rising Oaks Early Learning with two cases.
• One at a congregate care setting with one case.
• One at St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener. The number of cases was not released.
• One at Conestoga College with three cases.

Vaccine pre-registration opens to all over age 12

On Tuesday, Region of Waterloo Public Health opened vaccination pre-registration to all residents over age 12. 

In total, there have been 229,677 doses administered with 16,809 people fully vaccinated in Waterloo region.