98 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo region Monday

Waterloo region saw 98 new cases of COVID-19 on the weekend, public health reported Monday.

Broken down by days there were:

• 38 cases reported Saturday.
• 25 cases reported Sunday.
• 35 cases reported Monday.

There were no new COVID-related deaths reported.

There are 251 active cases in the region. As well, there are 10 people in the region's three hospitals infectious with COVID-19 as of Monday's update, and four people in the region's intensive care unit. People in the ICU may no longer be infectious with the virus, but still require specialized care.

There were 11 outbreaks in the region. Four of the outbreaks were in schools:

• Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Kitchener with eight cases over multiple cohorts.
• Preston Public School in Cambridge with four cases.
• FloradalePublic School in Elmira with two cases.
• Blair Road Public School in Cambridge with two cases.

The other outbreaks were:

• A home child care with five cases.
• A career, skills and training workplace with four cases.
• A trades workplace with four cases.
• A gym with three cases.
• A retail store with two cases.
• A transportation workplace with two cases.
• A congregate setting with one case.

The region now says that 74.73 per cent of the population, or 86.05 per cent of those aged 12 and older, have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Friday, the region changed how it was reporting the number of people vaccinated.

The region started to use updated population numbers from Statistics Canada, which increased the number of people living in Waterloo region by more than 16,000.

As well, the region changed how it groups people by age group, placing people in age groups based on birth year, rather than the age they were when they were vaccinated.

"These two changes will result in most values on our dashboard changing," said Vickie Murray, lead of the region's vaccination task force.

In particular, the 18 to 29 age group saw a significant drop as all post-secondary students, including international students, were listed as part of the region's population where before they were not.