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WATERLOO REGION - Waterloo Region has 353 COVID-19 cases and three more deaths.

Tuesday morning's update by public health is an additional 26 confirmed cases on Monday's 327.

Fourteen people with the respiratory virus have now died.

Of the current local cases, 120 are resolved and 23 are hospitalized.

The number of people in hospital peaked on April 6, and has been going down since then.

"The hospitals are continuing to cope well. They still have capacity for cases," acting medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang. told regional council on Tuesday.

However, local long-term care homes are struggling with a spike in cases. Currently outbreaks are declared at 13 long-term care and nursing homes across the region, and seven residents have died.

"They are very vulnerable to COVID-19," Wang said.

Testing was ramped up at two Kitchener nursing homes - Highview Residences and Forest Heights Revera - experiencing an outbreak and high numbers of both residents and staff who tested positive. Staff at all homes are required to wear masks.

Nursing home outbreaks are a major source of transmission of coronavirus in the region, nearly evenly split with close contact and community. Travel has dropped to the smallest portion.

Five residents have died at Highview Residences in Kitchener, including two deaths on Monday. The numbers provided by the home on Tuesday increased the region's total deaths to 14, while that day's regional update reported 13 as of 7 p.m. on Monday.

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"In so many ways, there are just no words that convey the grief and sadness to the families of our two residents who died yesterday," Joy Birch, Highview chief operating officer, said in a release. "Our staff and our other families are rallying with each other in support as we grieve and yet keep on working."

Forest Heights and Lanark Heights Long Term Care, also in Kitchener, each lost a resident to COVID-19.

Women account for 65 per cent of local cases. Wang doesn't think there is a reason why more women have tested positive in the region. She thinks maybe it is due to the smaller numbers locally compared to provincially, which has an even split between men and women.

"I think it's just by chance," Wang said.

A total of 3,343 tests have been done in the region - up from 3,154 reported Monday. Testing expanded in the region, and across Ontario, when more testing kits were made available and provincial guidelines were updated to include more people in vulnerable groups.

"We started to have a significant increase in the number of cases reported since we expanded testing this past Friday," Wang said.

Around 500 tests were done over the weekend. Wang said results are also coming back fairly quickly now, which will lead to a big jump in case numbers over a short period.

"It will seem very concerning," she said.

jweidner@therecord.com

Twitter: @WeidnerRecord