Variant cases of COVID-19 jump to 428 in Waterloo region Tuesday

The number of COVID-19 cases that have screened positive for a variant of concern jumped to 428 on Tuesday, public health reported.

It was a jump of 32 cases over the 396 reported on Monday.

Of the cases with a variant, 27 have been confirmed to be the B117 variant, which was first detected in the U.K. Provincial officials have said variants of concernnow account for more than half of all COVID-19 cases in Ontario,the majority of which are the B117 variant. Other variantsinclude one first identified in South Africaand one first identified in Brazil.

Dr. Peter Juni, a member of the province's COVID-19 science advisory tableand a professor of medicine and epidemiology with the University of Toronto, has described the current status of the pandemic in Ontario as "completely out of control."

26 new cases

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 26 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. That brought the total in March to 1,183 and since the start of the pandemic to 11,885, of which 11,337 have been marked as resolved.

There were 299 active cases in the region with 25 people in hospital and sixof those people in the intensive care unit.

There were no new deaths reported in the region on Tuesday. The number of COVID-related deaths sits at 242.

Ontario confirmed 2,336morecases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. During a media briefing on Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford told people not to make plans to see other people for Easter.

Outbreak at UW residences

There are now 21 on-campus cases at the University of Waterloo and an outbreak has been declared in the school's residences.

The school says the cases include COVID variants of concern. The outbreak is linked to "off-campus gatherings of students from both universities in Waterloo."

• Outbreak declared in all University of Waterloo residences as21 COVID-19 cases reported

Public health reports an outbreak of three cases linked to the off-campus gatherings at Wilfrid Laurier University.

16 active outbreaks

As of Tuesday, there were16 active outbreaks in the region including the one at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Three long-term care homes werein outbreak. In each, the cases are in people who work at the homes and not people who live there.

There were five outbreaks in schools:

• Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary Schoolin Waterloo with two cases.
• St. John Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener with two cases.
• St. Michael's Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge with two cases.
• Resurrection Catholic Secondary Schoolin Kitchener with two cases.
• Vista Hills Public School in Waterloo with three cases.

The other outbreaks were:

• Three in hospitals: One each at Grand River Hospital, St. Mary's General Hospital and Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
• One at Court at Laurelwood Retirement Residence, an independentliving facility, with two cases in people who live there.
• Two at manufacturing workplaces: One with six cases and one with four cases. Regional health officials do not usually name workplacesunless there is potential for transmission to the general public or a sustained outbreak creates 50 or more cases.