COVID-19 cases linked to social gatherings in Waterloo grow

The number of people diagnosed with COVID-19,linked to social gatherings in Waterloo earlier this month, has grown withpublic health officials saying there is now secondary spread.

The number is now at 56 confirmed casesandtwo probablecases.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, the region's medical officer of health, says there are also52 high-risk close contacts. The cases are linked to multiple gatherings at private residences and includes students from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

"Over the last week, confirmed cases associated with this cluster have continued to grow," Wang said Friday during the region's weeklymedia briefing."This cluster illustrates how easily or quickly COVID-19 can spread when public health measures aren't practiced."

Dr. Wang says Waterloo region's case trends are "relatively stable" even accounting for the cluster and the region hasn't seen a recent spike in cases like other parts of the province.

35 new cases

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 35 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. That broughtthe total to 1,001 in March and since the start of the pandemic to 11,703. Of those, 11,195 cases have been marked as resolved.

There were no new deaths reported Friday.

The number of active cases in the region was 261 with 22 people in hospital and seven people in the intensive care unit.

So far 336 cases have screened positive for a variant of concern with 23 confirmed to be the B117 variant, first detected in the United Kingdom.

Wang said the province likes to see a trend oflower cases over a period of at least two weeks before dropping a region down into a less-restrictive zone of thecolour-coded COVID-19 framework.

Currently Waterloo region is in the red zone and Wang says case trends have aligned with orange zone metrics for about a week. She said it'spossible the region could drop to orange next weekend if cases stay low.

Ontario reported another 2,169 cases of COVID-19 on Friday.

17 active outbreaks

There are 17 active outbreaks in the region with four at long-term care homes.

There are four outbreaks in public and Catholic schools, which include:

• Crestview Public School in Kitchener with six cases over multiple cohorts.
• Vista Hills Public School in Waterloo with three cases.
• Resurrection Catholic Secondary School in Kitchener with two cases.
• St. Michael Catholic Elementary Schoolin Cambridge with two cases.

The other outbreaks include:

• Two in hospitals: One at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener and one at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
• One at Court at Laurelwood Retirement Residence, an independent living facilityin Waterloo with two cases.
• One at the University of Waterloo with six cases.
• One at Wilfrid Laurier University with three cases.
• Two at manufacturing workplaces: one with six cases, one with four cases.
• One at a hair salon with two cases.
• One at a lab with three cases.