Record high 232 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo region Thursday

There were 232 new COVID-19 cases reported in Waterloo region on Thursday.

That was the highest number of cases reported in a single day since the start of the pandemic, surpassing 203 reported on Jan. 10, 2021.

It also brought the total number of cases in December to 1,861. It made this month the fourthhighestin relation to the number of monthly case totals. It's behindJanuary 2021 with 3,356 cases, December 2020 with 2,313 cases and April 2021 with 2,251.

There were no new COVID-related deaths reported on Thursday.

The number of active cases hit 1,049. There were 19 people infectious with COVID-19in the region's three hospitals and six people in intensive care. The region notes people in ICU may no longer be infectious with the virus, but require ongoing, specialized care.

21 active outbreaks

There were 21 active outbreaks in the region. One was at Lanark Heights long-term care home in Kitchener where there were eight cases in staff members and eight "non-staff" cases. There was one death associated with this outbreak.

There were 16 outbreaks at schools, eight newly declared. The outbreaks were:

• A new outbreak at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge with two cases.
• A new outbreak at Southwood Secondary School in Cambridge with three cases.
• A new outbreak at Centennial Public School in Waterloo with two cases.
• A new outbreak at John Sweeny Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener with two cases.
• A new outbreak at Breslau Public School with two cases.
• A new outbreak at Jean Steckle Public School in Kitchener with three cases.
• A new outbreak at Galt Collegiate Institute in Cambridge with two cases.
• A new outbreak at an unnamed private school with two cases.
• Saint John Paul II Catholic Elementary School in Kitchener with nine cases.
• Tait Street Public School in Cambridge with eightcases.
• St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Elementary School in Elmira with fourcases over multiple cohorts.
• St. Augustine Catholic School in Cambridge with four cases.
• St. Mary's High School in Kitchener with four cases.
• A private school with four cases.
• Monsignor Doyle Catholic Secondary School in Cambridge with five cases over multiple cohorts.
• St. Luke Catholic School in Waterloo with two cases.

The other outbreaks were:

• Columbus Conference Centre in Waterloo with five cases.
• An automobile sales and service workplace with four cases.
• A manufacturer with three cases.
• An office with two cases.

The region's vaccination dashboard showed 75.78 per cent of all residents had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.