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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 11 ,2 02 1 | 20 Crossword & SudokuAnswers Let your community know you're open for business. ommunity c ourt yeL To help our communitieswe have created an online business directory that features local businesses that are open, hours of operation and how customers can safelymake purchases from your store. Our business directory can be accessed from anyone of our 25 Community sites in Ontario. Visit metroland.com to find the community site in your area. Signing up is easy and free. 1 Visit our community website in your area and click on the banner at the bottom of the page 2 Click the "Add Business" link 3 Complete and submit the formSubmit www.metroland.com Supporting Local Businesses inYour Community ourYusinesses inB With shopping restrictions changing regularly to complywith the latest public health safety measures our communities need to be kept in- formed onwhich businesses are open and how they are ensuring a safe shopping experience. To help our communities we have created an online business directory that features local businesses that are open, hours of operation and how customers can safely make purchases from the stores. Our business directory can be accessed from anyone of our 25 Community sites in Ontario.Visit metroland.com to find the community site in your area. Visit our communitywebsite in your area and click on the banner at the bottom of the page. ea and clickarourye inebsitwommunitycVisit our www.metroland.com Last week marked one year since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Waterloo region. "It's a difficult milestone because it represents a dif- ficult year," associate med- ical officer of health Dr. Ju- lie Emili Since then -- as of last week -- 384,579 tests have been done, 10,904 residents tested positive and 232 died. "But there's hope too," Emili said. On Thursday March 4, the second fixed vaccina- tion clinic opened in Water- loo and more clinics are opening across the region in the coming weeks. "There's still a way to go and will take a concerted amount of effort from ev- ery member of our commu- nity," Emili said. "But I am encouraged to see more hope on the horizon." Another 34 cases were added in the Friday March 5 update by public health. Three more deaths were reported. Active cases dropped by 19 to 372. Hospitalizations decreased by nine to 33, in- cluding seven people re- quiring intensive care. Outbreaks dropped by two to 27. "Our indicators are still high, but stable at this time," Emili said. The weekly incident rate is between 55 and 60 per 100,000 people -- a slight increase over the week prior. Eleven cases of the U.K. or B.1.1.7 variant were con- firmed, and another 124 cases screened positive for a variant. Case and contact man- agement was enhanced a few weeks ago in response to the appearance of vari- ants of concern in the re- gion, Emili said. All posi- tive cases are managed as if they're a variant of con- cern, which are more easi- ly spread versions of the COVID-19 virus. The threshold for deter- mining high-risk close con- tacts has been lowered, and asymptomatic household contacts are also encour- aged to stay home as much as possible. "This means that more people may be required to self-isolate due to an expo- sure to COVID-19, but it al- so means that we will be able to better limit and con- trol the spread of variants in our community," Emili said. "Self-isolation is not easy but it's a critical step that helps us break the chain of transmission." NEWS COVID-19 MILESTONE REPRESENTS 'DIFFICULT YEAR' FOR WATERLOO REGION JOHANNA WEIDNER jweidner@therecord.com Dr. Julie Emili from Region of Waterloo Public Health. Region of Waterloo photo ONE YEAR HAS PASSED SINCE THE FIRST LOCAL CASE OF THE VIRUS WAS REPORTED SCAN THIS CODE to see Waterloo region's latest COVID-19 numbers.