Daily COVID-19 cases hit 121, hospitalizations increase in Waterloo region

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 121 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday the highest daily case count since January 21 when there were 125 new infections.

Thirty people are hospitalized with COVID-19, a dozen of whom are in the intensive care unit. There's been a steady increase of six hospitalizations per day since Sunday.

That came after the Ontario government allowed hospitals to transfer patients from facilities that are overwhelmed.

Lee Fairclough, president of St. Mary's General Hospital said on Monday that external patients have already arrived and that the region's intensive care units are nearing capacity.

"Hospitals in our region are caring for new cases of COVID-19 from our own community as well as supporting patients transferred for care from other regions.We are monitoring the situation closely and working collaboratively across hospitals in this and neighbouring regions to manage it," said Fairclough in a statement to CBC K-W Tuesday.

The region'sreported variant cases increased by 30 from Monday with a total of 858 variant cases identified as of Tuesday. Forty cases are confirmed to be the B117 variant first detected in the UK.

There are 592 active infections in the region.

Meanwhile, Ontario reported 3,670 new infections on Tuesday. There are 1,822 people with COVID-19 in hospitals across the province, according to the Ministry of Health.

16 outbreaks

There are 16 active outbreaks in the region.

A new outbreak at St. Mary's General Hospital, fourth floor, wasdeclared on Monday.

Meanwhile, the region's dashboard has removed the University of Waterloo from its active outbreaks list. The university was grappling with an outbreak on all its residences with at least 38 positive cases, some linked tooff-campus social gatherings.

The university's website suggests there have been 10 cases on campus in the past two weeks.

There are four outbreaks at schools in the region including:

• One at Highland Public School with three cases.
• One at Waterloo Collegiate Institute with two cases.
• One at St. Luke Catholic Elementary School with two cases.
• One at Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School with two cases.

Other outbreaks include:

• Two at Elite Day Care: One with two cases and another with five.
• One at YMCA Brigadoon with five cases.
• One at a congregate setting with four cases.
• One at an office with two cases.
• One at a food and beverage service with three cases.
• One at a trades and related service with two cases.
• One at a food processing workplace with three cases.
• One at a place of worship with two cases.
• One at an optometrist's office with three cases.
• One at a manufacturing workplace with seven cases.