Waterloo May Not Be Able To Move Into Step 2 With The Rest Of Ontario As Planned

As Waterloo battles with rising COVID-19 cases, the region has announced that they may not be moving into step two with the rest of the province.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Region of Waterloo revealed that the spread of the Delta variant has become a problem with local residents and it may threaten the region's reopening process if it doesn't get under control.

"The Delta variant is here and spreading rapidly in our community. However, we can stop the spread together and keep our case rates down by getting fully vaccinated as quickly as possible and following public health guidance and measures," reads the statement.

"If case rates do not decrease, we may not be able to move to Step 2 with the rest of the province," it continues.

With Waterloo's daily case numbers surpassing Toronto's on Wednesday, Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, echoed the same words.

In fact, Williams even revealed that if cases continue to get worse, they may limit some activities in step one as well.

"If there are concerns to constrain any ongoing transmission of the Delta in those settings in different communities can put in, under the ROA legislation, some things to limit some of the activities, either in step one or even further, if there was still some concerns in a week or two weeks from now to limit some progression to step two," stated Williams.

"They are considering that they might put some limitations on congregate activities where they are concerned there might be a potential for more spread of the Delta variant at this time."

"We're hoping that of course, they might be able to bring that down fairly assertively in the next week or so, so we're putting all our energy into helping them do that."