Three deaths over the weekend brought the coronavirus-related toll to 11 in Waterloo Region, the Public Health department reported today.
“This morning, I am sad to report that since my update this past Friday, as of yesterday, 7 p.m., we have had three more COVID-related deaths to report,” said acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, in a video conference.
The three most-recent fatalities involved people over the age of 70 who had underlying medical conditions before their contracting the virus.
Wang explained that all deaths where the person had tested positive for the coronavirus had been considered a causality of the virus “even if it was not the primary cause of death.”
As well as the increase in deaths there was a drastic rise in people testing positive for the virus. The surge in diagnosis coincided with a requirement to make testing mandatory for people in retirement homes including staff. “Following increased availability of testing kits, we immediately began the process of maximizing testing at long term care and retirement homes, “ Wang explained
There have been 327 cases of COVID-19 in the region, with 27 patients hospitalized. Self-isolating at home are 159 people, with 106 cases deemed resolved.
Once evenly spread between men and women, the gap is now 63 per cent female and 35 per cent male in indentified cases.
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health reports 133 confirmed cases in its catchment area, and there have been three fatalities. Twenty-five cases have been resolved, with eight patients in hospital, five in intensive care.
There, the gender gap is 56.4 per cent female, 43.6 per cent male, numbers more in line with the provincial average (55/44.4).
As of this morning, the Ministry of Health was reporting 7,470 cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario, with 291 deaths attributed to the virus, representing a mortality rate of 3.9 per cent. The ministry reports 3,357 cases (44.93 per cent) have been resolved.
The latest numbers from Health Canada show 24,365 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, with 717 related deaths.
In the region of the weekend, there was a concerted effort to enforce rules for slowly the spread of the virus, noted chief administrative officer Mike Murray at today’s conference.
“There was a lot of enforcement activity over the weekend. We had public health inspectors out over the weekend we had bylaw enforcement officers over the weekend, and I assume that municipalities had bylaw out, as well as the WRPS (Waterloo Regional Police).”
Although there was an increase in [the] number of enforcement officers working over the weekend, there were no additional charges laid. There was, however, a large sum of compliance checks, said Murray – “110 food premises, 84 personal support setting personal service settings, 114 churches and one mosque.
“Everyone was cooperative and no additional charges were laid,” he added.
