COVID-19 municipal breakdown ‘skewed,’ medical officer says

— Kitchener has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in Waterloo Region, according to a new breakdown by municipality.

However, the region’s top medical official cautioned that testing limitations need to be taken into account when looking at the numbers by city and township.

“I think it’s important to note these are skewed results automatically because of the fact that only prioritized groups and settings are being tested now,” acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said during Friday’s media briefing. “I do not think that these rates are representative of the spread of COVID-19 in our community.”

Wang said the key message from the new data is there are cases in every municipality, and people need to take precautions

anywhere they go.

“There’s not a municipality that is at low risk while another municipality is at high risk,” she said. “Everywhere across Waterloo Region, people could get COVID-19. We know this because of the way it spreads. It spreads broadly. It spreads easily.”

Public health added the breakdown by municipality to its daily dashboard on Friday. For each municipality, it’s broken down further by case related to facility outbreaks and those in the community.

Kitchener has the most cases per 100,000 residents at 214.1, followed by Woolwich at 164.7, North Dumfries at 64.9, Wilmot at 55, Waterloo at 50.7, Cambridge at 48.1 and Wellesley at 43.1. Regionwide, the rate is 125.1. Outbreak-related cases regionwide are 76.1 per 100,000.

Many health departments have been sharing geographical rates; Wang said the region had been asked for the data and felt there were now enough numbers to break it down.

The number of positive cases is skewed based on testing guidance from the province that prioritizes groups and settings at greater risk, including long-term-care and retirement homes.

Facility outbreaks account for the majority of cases in both Kitchener and Woolwich, which have the highest rates. Kitchener has 44 per cent of the region’s long-term-care and retirement home capacity, Wang said. Regional Chair Karen Redman stressed that there is a concentration of these residential facilities in certain municipalities, which increases the rate of cases in those communities.

“This data should not be misinterpreted to give a false sense of security to those who aren’t in one of those settings,” Redman said.

“COVID-19 is still in our community,” she said. “New cases due to community spread of the virus are being identified each day and the risks of contracting the virus are the same throughout the whole of Waterloo Region.”

Deaths related to COVID-19had reached 72 by Friday morning’s update by public health, four more since the day before. There were an additional 22 confirmed cases for a total of 773. Of the current local cases, 316 are resolved and 39 are hospitalized — the same number of hospitalizations as Thursday’s update.

Outbreaks have been declared at 12 long-term-care and retirement homes across the region. There are also two outbreaks in congregate settings with a total of 18 cases in residents and 16 in staff — a new number reported by the region.

Wang said congregate settings are places such as group homes where the residents are more vulnerable to COVID-19, due to such things as significant medical issues. She added that specific information about the homes is not being shared to protect privacy because they’re smaller.

Three outbreaks in two local hospitals have been declared over. Only one outbreak remains on a medical unit at St. Mary’s General Hospital.