70% of all Waterloo region residents have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine | The Canadian News

The Waterloo region COVID-19 vaccine task force says there have now been 843,147 vaccines in the area, 1,589 more than it reported on Wednesday.

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

This means that 70.14 percent of area residents have now been fully vaccinated, a number that rises to 81.54 percent when only those eligible to get vaccinated are counted (excluding children under 12 years of age).

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

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

The agency said 29 other people have also been eliminated from the virus, bringing the number of resolved cases to 18,846.

No new COVID-19-related deaths were reported Thursday, leaving the area’s death toll 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.

Eight patients remain in area hospitals as a result of COVID-19 and six of them require intensive care.

Elsewhere, Ontario reported 864 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a jump from the past two days when counts were recorded below 600, yet daily test numbers continue to rise. The total number of provincial cases now stands at 577,253.

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

According to Thursday report162 cases were recorded in Toronto, 122 in the Peel region, 78 in the 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 occurring in the past month, the Ontario health ministry said.

—With files from Gabby Rodrigues of Global News