'COVID-19 is not over:' Waterloo region's daily case count rises above Ontario average
CBC
The daily rate of COVID-19 cases in the Waterloo region has moved above the provincial average, a figure pushed upward by household clusters and social gatherings, the region's medical officer of health says.
That's why it's critical for people to continue to follow public health measures, Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said Tuesday.
Case counts have been rising since Nov. 1 when eight were reported, compared to this weekend when the daily case count ranged from 27 to 39 over a period of three days.
Public health is expected to release Tuesday's numbers at 1:30 p.m.
"We have seen our daily rate double over the past couple of days and we're above the provincial average at this time," Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang told regional councillors Tuesday morning during an update at a committee meeting.
"This is an important reminder that COVID-19 is not over and that COVID-19 — and the delta variant — is a formidable virus and will spread easily in the absence of public health measures and vaccination."
On Tuesday, the province reported 441 new cases of COVID-19, a roughly 33 per cent jump from a week earlier. It also marked the ninth consecutive day of week-over-week increases in cases.
Wang said local case and contact management has found there have been clusters of cases in households and cases linked to social events in private settings.
Wang said COVID-19 is spreading among people who are unvaccinated, either by choice or because they're ineligible for the vaccine yet.
"As we have seen in past waves, when our community rates increased, so do our rates in school-aged children who are part of these families," Wang said.
She noted that as of Sunday, there are approximately 126,000 residents in the region who are not vaccinated.
"For comparison, this is equivalent to an entire mid-sized city, such as Cambridge or Waterloo not being immunized," Wang said.
The 2016 census pegged Cambridge's population at 129,920 while the City of Waterloo says on its website that its population as of 2017 is 137,420 when students and temporary residents are included.
Wang also noted 44,000 are people over the age of 12 and could get the vaccine.
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