Waterloo region moved to 'orange' level in province's COVID-19 framework

Waterloo region will move into the "orange" or "restrict" level of the COVID-19 framework as of Monday.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott made that announcement Friday afternoon. 

It comes after associate medical officer of health Dr. Julie Emili and regional Chair Karen Redman said they had been in contact with the provincial government to ask for the move from yellow, where the region currently sits, to orange.

In just the past week, Emili says the region has reported nearly 300 new cases of the virus.

"The goal to move to orange is to be preventative in nature, to delay even further restrictions," she said. "These are challenging and rapidly changing times in our community."

The goal is to keep businesses and schools open and protect hospitals from going over capacity so they can continue with surgeries and other health care needs.

While the region's acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang could implement more restrictions on her own, Redman noted it's important the province move the region to a new level because it means the region could access additional funding to help cover costs of new restrictions.

45 new cases Friday

The region reported 45 new cases on Friday. The region has seen 423 new cases in November alone.

There are currently 286 active cases with five people in hospital.

There are 19 active outbreaks in the region.

The province reported 1,396 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. New modelling has showed the province could face more than 6,000 COVID-19 cases per day by mid-December if it doesn't add more public health restrictions. Premier Doug Ford is expected to speak at 2:30 p.m.