COVID-19 levels continue to stabilize in Ottawa area
Recent developments:
Ottawa's COVID-19 levels are stable or dropping.
The city's public health unit says it's encouraged by the trends.
Four more people with COVID have died in the region.
The latest
This winter's weather may be all over the place, but the local pandemic picture has remained stable with some welcome downward trends.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has said for four weeks now that respiratory virus trends are encouraging but it's still worthwhile to reduce risks as COVID-19 levels remain high.
Experts strongly recommend people wear masks indoors and, in Ontario, in the days after having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sick and being up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines also help protect vulnerable people.
Non-COVID respiratory virus levels are generally low.
Wastewater
Data from the research team shows that as of Feb. 7, the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater is stable.
OPH considers this level to be very high.
Hospitals
OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is stable at 32. That number has hovered around 30 so far this year.
Three of those patients are in intensive care.
There is another count that includes other patients, such as people admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID, those admitted for lingering COVID complications, and those transferred from other health units.
That count spent January around the 80s and 90s, dropping further into the 70s with this latest update.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Ottawa's COVID-19 test positivity rate remains around 11 per cent, which OPH says is moderate.
Ottawa has 14 active COVID outbreaks, continuing a slow decline. It's another trend OPH considers moderate.
OPH has reported 86 more COVID cases since Tuesday and two deaths of people with COVID, both age 80 or above. In all, 1,017 Ottawa residents who've died since the start of the pandemic had COVID as a contributing or underlying factor.
Vaccines
Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most recent COVID vaccine dose within the last six months, as is generally recommended, with older age groups having higher rates.
This does not factor in immunity from getting COVID.
As of the most recent weekly update, 85 per cent of Ottawa residents had at least one COVID vaccine dose, 82 per cent had at least two, 56 per cent at least three and 31 per cent at least four.
Across the region
Spread
Coronavirus wastewater averages are stable in Kingston. Data for other areas outside Ottawa is out of date or unavailable.
Renfrew County's average COVID test positivity is stable around 10 per cent.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit's COVID risk level is considered low.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report a drop to about 20 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with four patients in intensive care.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its local hospitalization count rises to 15 patients after dropping last week.
Western Quebec has 79 COVID hospital patients, which is dropping. One of them is in intensive care.
Renfrew County and the EOHU each reported one more COVID death.
Vaccines
The Kingston area's health unit says that 32 per cent of its population age five and up have had a vaccine in the last six months. That number is 27 per cent in HPE and unavailable elsewhere.
Across eastern Ontario, between 79 and 90 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 52 and 65 per cent of those residents have had at least three.
