70% of all Waterloo Region residents have had two doses of COVID-19 vaccine | Globalnews.ca

Waterloo Region’s COVID-19 vaccine task force says there have now been 843,147 vaccinations in the area, 1,589 more than it reported on Wednesday.

In addition, 413,026 area residents have now been fully vaccinated, which is 919 more than was announced 24 hours earlier.

This means that 70.14 per cent of area residents have now been fully vaccinated, a number that climbs to 81.54 per cent when only counting those eligible to be vaccinated (excluding children under the age of 12).

On the flip side of the coin, Waterloo Public Health reported 34 new positive tests for the coronavirus on Thursday, the highest 24-hour total it has reported since early July.

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This lifts the total number of COVID-19 cases in the area to 19,347 and the rolling seven-day average number of new cases up to 26.

The agency said that another 29 people have also been cleared of the virus, pushing the number of resolved cases up to 18,846.

There were no new COVID-19-related deaths reported on Thursday, leaving the death toll in the area at 293 including the four victims this month.

This leaves the area with 204 active COVID-19 cases, the highest the area has seen since July 16.

There continue to be eight patients in area hospitals as a result of COVID-19 with six of those needing intensive care.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 864 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a jump from the last two days which saw counts under 600, however, daily testing numbers continue to increase. The provincial case total now stands at 577,253.

Of the 864 new cases recorded, the data showed 533 were unvaccinated people, 56 were partially vaccinated people, 209 were fully vaccinated people and for 66 people the vaccination status was unknown.

According to Thursday’s report, 162 cases were recorded in Toronto, 122 in Peel Region, 78 in York Region, 64 in Ottawa, 53 in Hamilton and 50 in Windsor-Essex.

All other local public health units reported fewer than 50 new cases in the provincial report.

The death toll in the province has risen to 9,632 with three deaths that occurred within the last month, Ontario’s ministry of health said.

—With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues