Advertisement

117 more COVID-19 cases in Ottawa as testing delays continue

Ottawa recorded another 117 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday as major testing delays continue to complicate the job of contact tracing for public health officials.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is reporting no more deaths and marked 112 more cases as resolved, for a total of 810 known active cases in the city. Two-thirds of the new cases reported Wednesday are people under the age of 40.

Due to a backlog of more than 55,000 tests at the province's laboratories, OPH says it's currently able to notify people of positive test results within 48 hours just 15 per cent of the time. Testing was paused altogether at some sites earlier this week as Ontario shifted to an appointment-only system.

So far, 4,970 Ottawa residents have tested positive for COVID-19; 3,865 of those cases are considered resolved, and the city's death toll has now reached 295.

Twenty-eight patients are currently in hospital, six of them in intensive care, leaving more than half the city's ICU beds available, according to OPH.

There are currently nine outbreaks at Ottawa schools, but no new ones reported Wednesday. An outbreak at Assumption School has been declared over. More than 100 Ottawa schools have had at least one student or staff member test positive for COVID-19.

Elsewhere, Quebec says there are 49 new cases in the Outaouais, the region's second-highest daily total after recording 66 on Tuesday.

Quebec logged 900 more COVID-19 cases Wednesday, breaking a streak of days above 1,000.

Ontario tallied 583 more cases.