Yes it's hard, but avoid social gatherings to curb COVID-19, says Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang

It's a message Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang has been giving for more than a year and on Friday, she said it again: "Avoid social gatherings."

Wang,the region's medical officer of health, made the comments on Friday during a regular media briefing after it was announced this week several cases, including at least one that has screened positive for a variant of concern, resulted after social gatherings in Waterloo.

People are asked to avoid all social gatherings, Wang said, because people can be infectious with COVID-19 before symptoms are present. That's why it's easily spread between family members and friends who do not maintain a physical distance, she said.

"Our actions today inform what comes next for Waterloo region," Wang said. "Our situation is precarious and we are not immune to a rapid acceleration of cases. We all must continue to limit our mobility, limit our close contacts and avoid social gatherings to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community."

29 new cases, 1 death

Region of Waterloo Public Health reported 29 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday. It brought the total this month to 757 and since the start of the pandemic to 11,459. Of those, 10,910 have been marked as resolved.

There was one additional death of a person with the virusreported, a woman in her 60s, bringing the total of COVID-related deaths in the region to 240.

There were 297 active cases and 23 people in hospital with 10 people in the intensive care unit.

"Week-over-week improvements have slowed since mid-February," Wang said of local case trends.

"While I am grateful that our cases remain stable at this time, I am concerned with what I am seeing in other communities in Ontario where case rates have gone up again and the impact variants can have on transmission rates," she said.

On Friday, there were 261 COVID-19 cases in the region that had screened positive for a variant of concern with 17 confirmed to be the B117 variant first discovered in the U.K.

16 active outbreaks

There were 16 active outbreaks in the region as of Friday with three in long-term care homes. All the cases in the homes were in staff members.

There are two outbreaks at elementary schools:

• Highland Public School in Cambridge with six cases.
• Crestview Public School in Kitchener with four cases over two cohorts.

The other outbreaks were:

• Three in congregate settings: One with 128 cases, one with 36 cases and one death and one with four cases.
• Two in hospitals: One at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener and one at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
• One at an independent living centre with one case in a staff member.
• One at a licensed home childcare centre with five cases.
• One at the University of Waterloo with two cases.
• One at an automobile sales and service business with four cases.
• One at a retail store with three cases.
• One at a lab with three cases.