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Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today

CBC
·4 min read
Pedestrians stroll along Sparks Street in Ottawa on Sunday during the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC - image credit)
Pedestrians stroll along Sparks Street in Ottawa on Sunday during the sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Trevor Pritchard/CBC - image credit)

  • Ottawa's pandemic trends are stable or dropping.

  • Two COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the region.

Today's Ottawa update

Wastewater

The average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater has been slowly dropping for about three weeks since the pandemic-record peak of the sixth wave in April.

The most recent data from May 5 (the bold red line in the graph below) shows the level was still about six times higher than what it was in early March before the current spike.

613covid.ca
613covid.ca

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

Hospitals

There were 26 Ottawa residents in local hospitals for treatment of active COVID-19 in Monday's Ottawa Public Health (OPH) update. Five of those patients are in intensive care. Both numbers are stable.

The 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 such as these, the number was 106 as of Saturday. That's a slight increase after nearly two weeks of decline. Some hospitals are again having staffing problems.

Ottawa Public Health
Ottawa Public Health

Tests, outbreaks and cases

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.

The city's 63 outbreaks are stable. The 27 retirement home outbreaks are the most among health-care settings.

On Monday, OPH reported 121 more cases and one more death over three days.

The rolling weekly incidence rate of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 residents, drops to around 75.

At 15 per cent, Ottawa's average positivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes is very slowly dropping. The average inside the homes is stable around 10 per cent. The last update was on Friday.

Vaccines

916,051: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 134 more than in last Monday's weekly update. That's still 92 per cent of the eligible population.

880,294: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with a second dose, 228 since the last update. That's still 89 per cent of the eligible population.

573,758: The number of Ottawans age 12 and up with a third dose, 1,149 since the last update. That's still 63 per cent of these residents; younger children only qualify with certain health conditions.

Seven per cent of residents age 12 and up have a fourth dose, or about 61,400 people. That's a little more than 10,000 doses since the last update.

Across the region

Wastewater

Ontario and Quebec continue to be in the sixth pandemic wave. There are signs of improvement in both provinces.

Wastewater levels in the Kingston area, east of Ottawa and in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties are stable. Other areas don't have public data.

Eastern Ontario has one of the highest regional wastewater averages in the province, according to the science table. It's dropping and is around the average of the neighbouring Peterborough and Muskoka area.

Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table
Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table

Hospitalizations

Western Quebec has 77 local COVID-19 hospitalizations, including patients who are no longer considered active cases. Three of those patients require intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa are reporting about 35 COVID-19 hospitalizations, including about five in intensive care. Both numbers are stable and neither includes Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health which, like western Quebec, has a different counting method.

LGL reported a stable seven COVID hospital patients Monday, as well as its 101st COVID death.

Vaccines

More than 5.3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to people in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

Quebec considers about 78 per cent of Outaouais residents to be "adequately vaccinated," which is a combination of vaccination and recent infection.

For each of the eastern Ontario health units, there are anywhere from 81 to 92 per cent of residents with at least two vaccine doses, and anywhere from 59 to 71 per cent of adults with three doses.