COVID trends stable or dropping, with more data available on flu and RSV

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 trends are stable or dropping.

• Its wastewater researchers are sharing flu and RSV readings.

• More of its residents got a COVID vaccine dose than in recent weeks.

• Twelve local COVID deaths reported since Friday.

The latest guidance

Officials in Ontario and Quebec say the health-care system, particularly for children, is under extraordinary pressure because of COVID-19, early flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasons, and a shortage of pain and fever medication.

Children's hospitals are cancelling surgeries and sending patients to adult hospitals, or other regions, to try to cope. There have been more absences from schools and child-care centres, said Ottawa's medical officer of health last week.

Ontario's chief medical officer of health has joined local voices in strongly recommending people wear masks indoors, staying home when sick, keeping hands and surfaces clean and keeping up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU)'s medical officer of health recommends masking in all social situations and any time someone has respiratory symptoms, including at home.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) said Thursday that COVID-19 levels remain high and Tuesday, that flu activity is similar to the previous week.

Ontario and Quebec RSV test positivity is increasing and flu indicators are rising.

Wastewater

The weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater is high. It's been dropping for about a week and has stayed within the same wider range for three months.

As of Nov. 9, the average is about nine times higher than this time last year.

The research team now shares flu and RSV levels in wastewater. Flu levels have been rising since late October and RSV levels have settled back to where they were about a month ago after a late-October rise.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is stable at 29 in Tuesday's update. There are two patients in intensive care, which is also stable.

When you look at its other count that includes other patients, such as people admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID-19, those admitted for lingering COVID-19 complications, and those transferred from other health units, the number dropped Tuesday.

Tests, outbreaks and cases

Testing strategies changed under the Omicron variant, meaning many COVID-19 cases aren't reflected in counts. Public health officials now only track and report outbreaks in health-care settings.

There are 36 active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is moderate, according to OPH, and dropping. It reports one flu outbreak in a retirement home and 30 "other" respiratory outbreaks, mostly in child-care settings.

OPH reported 90 more COVID cases over four days and three deaths of people in their 70s and 80s with COVID. A total of 956 Ottawa residents who had COVID have died, 346 of them this year.

Ottawa's COVID test positivity rate drops to 12 per cent. OPH said last week that "we cannot say for sure whether the current levels are accurate due to an ongoing data system changeover."

Vaccines

Ottawa residents received about 14,100 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last week, mostly fourth doses and more than the few most recent weeks.

As of the most recent weekly update, 93 per cent of Ottawa residents aged five and up had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 90 per cent had at least two and 61 per cent at least three.

Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at least four.

About 8,600 residents younger than five have had a first dose, which is about 19 per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,000, or six per cent, have had two.

Across the region

Spread

Wastewater trends are stable in Kingston and low across EOHU sites, except for higher readings in Morrisburg. They're high and stable in Brockville, rising in Kemptville, and dropping in Smiths Falls.

Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.

Test positivity in the EOHU is a high, stable 16 per cent. It drops to 11 per cent in the Kingston area.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Western Quebec's health authority, CISSSO, reports a drop to 81 COVID hospitalizations. One of the patients is in intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa are reporting about 65 COVID hospitalizations, 10 of them in intensive care. Just under half are in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health.

That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. It reported a drop to 16 COVID hospitalizations in its weekly update, the first time since August that it's below 20.

There were five more COVID-19 deaths reported in the past week in the Kingston area. Seventy-seven of its 99 COVID deaths have been in 2022.

Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties reported two more COVID deaths, bringing its overall COVID death toll to 137. The EOHU reported its 269th COVID death.

Each local health unit, except Ottawa, has had more reported COVID deaths in 2022 than either 2020 or 2021. Nationally, people dying of COVID in the later months of 2022 have generally been older, living with pre-existing conditions, or undergoing immune-suppressing treatments.

Vaccines

Across eastern Ontario, between 81 and 92 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two vaccine doses, and between 53 and 65 per cent of those residents have had at least three.