Precautions such as stay-at-home directives have significantly reduced community transmission of the novel coronavirus as the country enters the seventh week of lockdown measures, say local public health officials.
Still, Waterloo Region had 731 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 67 of them fatal, as of Wednesday morning.
About 70 per cent of the deaths occurred in long-term care and retirement homes, and about a quarter of all cases involve people over the age of 80.
In the region, the cases skew towards women by a large margin, 63 per cent versus 35 per cent for men. That’s higher than the province-wide spilt of 57.5 per cent female, and just slightly above the 61.3 per cent recorded by neighbouring Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.
Whether the split indicates women are more susceptible to the virus or that residents of long-term care facilities – which can skew towards women, who live longer – are more prone to be infected remains unclear, acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said during a videoconference Wednesday morning.
In Waterloo Region, there are currently 12 long-term care and retirement homes experiencing an outbreak.
“We continue to work closely with facilities in outbreak and with the continued close monitoring and expanded testing, I expect to see more cases identified,” said Wang.
Although the number of community-spread cases is dropping, the curve hasn’t been flattened at this point, as witnessed by outbreaks at the likes of Breslau’s Conestoga Meat Packers, she added, noting current precautions need to remain in place.
“As the days start to get warmer, I would like to remind all residents of the importance of following public orders. I know this is a challenging time, and many are feeling isolated, but staying home and limiting how often you leave your house and practicing physical distancing is making a difference. The measures help make a difference and may save lives. Your actions are making a difference,” said Wang.
“I cannot emphasize this enough. COVID-19 is still in our community and especially impacting long term care and retirement homes,” added regional Chair Karen Redman.
Province-wide, the number of cases stood at 15,728 as of Wednesday morning, an increase of 2.3 per cent over the previous day.
There have been 996 deaths attributed to the virus, representing a mortality rate of 6.3 per cent. The ministry reports 9,612 cases (61.1 per cent) have been resolved.
Wednesday’s numbers from Health Canada show 50,363 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, with 2,904 related deaths. Some 758,412 Canadians had been tested for the virus.
With some slowing of the numbers, attention has shifted to reopening part of the economy. The Ontario government this week issued a three-step plan outlining how the province aims to achieve its goal of a safe reopening, but the rollout will be a slow one. At midweek, for instance, local municipalities were part of a wider extension of service lockdowns extended to at least May 31.
“When we put all of that together, and we haven’t met all the conditions for reopening, and it will take two to four weeks each stage. All that meant for us is it’s highly unlikely that we will be able to open to the public before May 31,” said Mike Murray, the region’s chief administrative officer.
