Public Health confirms 21 new COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, first death in over two months

KITCHENER — Region of Waterloo Public Health has confirmed 21 new cases of COVID-19 and the first related death in over two months.

The Saturday afternoon update of their online dashboard also shows 11 more resolved cases and an increase of nine to the active case count.

This brings the totals to 2,154 confirmed cases, 1,926 resolved, 121 deaths, and 107 active cases.

The number of people in hospital for COVID-19 has dropped by one to eight. Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said during a media briefing Friday that three people are being cared for in the intensive care unit.

An outbreak linked to an event at a place of worship, which involved 18 cases, has been declared over.

Public Health has also declared an outbreak at Holy Spirit Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge. This is the second Catholic elementary school in the area to declare an outbreak following Our Lady of Grace Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener on Thursday.

In Ontario, officials reported 1,015 new cases on Saturday morning. This is the highest total since Oct. 25, when 1,042 cases were added.

In total, there are 75,730 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario.

Nine more COVID-19-related deaths were recorded in the last 24-hour period, pushing Ontario's death toll to 3,136.

At the same time, 798 more cases of the disease are now considered to be resolved by the Ministry of Health. At least 64,717 residents who contracted COVID-19 have recovered since the beginning of the pandemic.