500 people with COVID-19 have died since start of pandemic in Waterloo region

There have been 500 COVID-related deaths in Waterloo region since the start of the pandemic.

New numbers released by Region of Waterloo Public Health on Friday showed in the past week, there were four deaths. It brought the total number since March 2020 to 500.

Public health also reported 14 active outbreaks in high-risk settings such as long-term care and group homes, which was double what it was a week prior.

The number of hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 also jumped significantly, from 31 on Monday to 45 on Friday.

During a board of health meeting on Wednesday, Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said COVID-19 is "still circulating broadly, its rates fluctuate."

Wang noted cases of influenzaareincreasing while respiratorysyncytialvirus (RSV) in children"is possibly starting to slow down."

Public Health Ontario reported that for the week of Dec. 4 to 10, out of 87 samples tested, Waterloo region had four confirmed cases of the flu and sixcases of RSV.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health has 12 lab-confirmed cases of the flu during the week and 37 cases of RSVout of 163 samples tested.