• Ottawa's COVID-19 hospitalizations remain above where they were earlier this month.

• The city's outbreaks and community test positivity keep rising.

• Renfrew County reports three COVID deaths.

Today's Ottawa update

Wastewater

The average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater has stabilized below last week's record high, but it's still above the previous record from April 2021.

The most recent data from April 19 (the bold red line in the graph below) shows the level is about 10 times higher than what it was in early March before the current spike, and about 15 per cent higher than last April.

The red bars in the graph are the daily readings. The three highest on record have come this month.

There hasn't been an update yet on Friday.

Those records don't reflect the first wave of the pandemic, when wastewater was not monitored for traces of the virus.

Wastewater is a key indicator of what Ottawa Public Health (OPH) calls a significant COVID-19 wave. Officials highly recommend people take steps to protect themselves and others.

Hospitals

Twenty-six Ottawa residents are in local hospitals for treatment of active COVID-19, according to Friday's Ottawa Public Health (OPH) update. That number had been around 20 for most of the month.

Four of those patients are in intensive care. That number has been around five this week, after being lower for about two months.

Those hospitalization figures above don't include all patients. For example, they leave out patients 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.

When you include patients like this, the number was 96 as of Monday. It has been rising, and some hospitals are again having staffing problems.

Cases and outbreaks

Testing strategies have changed under the contagious Omicron variant, which means many new COVID-19 cases aren't reflected in current counts. Public health only tracks and reports outbreaks that occur in health-care settings.

At 20 per cent, the average positivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes is slowly rising. The average in these homes is around eight per cent, which is stable.

The city's 69 outbreaks are one more than reported Thursday and led by 27 in retirement homes.

On Friday, OPH reported no more deaths and 279 more cases as it continues to catch up from an undercount Monday and Tuesday.

The rolling weekly incidence rate of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 residents, is around 120.

Vaccines

As of this week's update, 92 per cent of Ottawa residents age five and up have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 89 per cent have at least two.

Sixty-two per cent of residents age 12 and up have at least three doses and three per cent have four.

Across the region

Ontario and Quebec are in the midst of another pandemic wave. Officials in both provinces say hospitalizations may be cresting. Even so, vulnerable people, including children, are still at higher risk of serious health problems.

Eastern Ontario has one of the highest regional wastewater averages, according to the province's science table. It only trails the Peterborough and Haliburton areas to its west.

Recent wastewater data from sites in Kingston is high and stable. Trends vary in the different wastewater sites in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties; data east of Ottawa is a week old.

Western Quebec has 99 local COVID-19 hospitalizations, with four in intensive care. Its health authority reported its 299th COVID death Friday.

Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa are reporting about 55 COVID-19 hospitalizations. About 10 of them are in intensive care.

Neither of those numbers includes Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its 18 local COVID hospitalizations are high and stable.

Renfrew County reported three COVID deaths Friday, its first reported deaths this month. Its 16 local COVID hospitalizations are high and stable.

LGL's 11 COVID hospital patients are high and stable. Five of them are in an ICU.