Nearly 400 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo region since Friday, demand high for 3rd doses

Hundreds of people lined up to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose at one of the vaccination buses parked outside the Kitchener Public Library on Monday morning.

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported the bus was at capacity before it even opened at 9 a.m. ET.

Chris Xu said it was difficult to book an appointment online, so he lined up at 5 a.m. to get his third dose.

"It's the holiday season and there's more activities," he said. "I'm worried a little bit about [how the] spread of [the] virus is quicker, is faster now, so it's better to get [the vaccine] as early as possible."

Danielle and Sue Turk arrived at 7:30 a.m. and were told they may be turned away by the time they got to the front of the line. They said they went to the mobile vaccination bus after not having any luck booking appointments online and on the phone.

Sue Turk said she didn't understand why it was so hard to access vaccines.

"I'm not sure why this region is really, really slow."

As well, the region's online booking system saw wait times of 40 minutes to an hour on Monday as more people became eligible for third doses.

The region tweeted "there is a very high demand for third dose appointments at this time. Our regional vaccination clinics are currently fully booked."

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 398 new COVID-19 cases since Friday.

Broken down by day, that was:

There were no new deaths reported in the region, with 806 active cases.

There were 20 people with the virus who were in the region's three hospitals, including seven people in the intensive care unit. The region noted people in ICU may no longer be infectious, but require ongoing care.

Ontario logged 3,784 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.