Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today
Ottawa's hospitalizations, wastewater have been more stable this week.
COVID-19 deaths are reported in Ottawa and the EOHU.
Renfrew County sets a local COVID-19 hospitalization record.
Today's Ottawa update
There are 57 Ottawa residents in local hospitals for treatment of active COVID-19, according to the Thursday update from Ottawa Public Health (OPH). That number has been around 60 in recent days after a period of constant growth.
Eight of these patients are in an ICU. That figure has also been generally stable.
These hospital numbers do not include people who came to the hospital for other reasons and then test positive for COVID-19. They also don't cover people with lingering COVID-19 problems, or patients transferred from other health units.
Hospitals are also challenged by rising spread because staffing shortages lower their capacity and the number of hospital outbreaks is growing.
The average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, which doesn't rely on COVID-19 testing, reached its highest point on record at the start of this week. There are now signs it may have plateaued.
The case count has surged to record levels in many places this winter — and as the Omicron variant's spread overwhelms and limits testing, the actual number of cases in Ottawa is many times higher.
On Thursday, OPH reported 532 more COVID-19 cases and the death of a man in his 70s who had COVID-19.
The rolling seven-day average of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases expressed per 100,000 residents is around 420, but limited testing capacity makes it less reliable.
Ninety-one per cent of eligible Ottawa residents have at least one vaccine dose, 84 per cent have at least two, and 44 per cent have at least three — though eligibility is extremely limited for children under 18.
OPH's next vaccine update is Friday.
Across the region
The wider region (with one exception) reports 291 COVID-19 hospital patients. Thirty-seven of those patients need intensive care. Both numbers have increased since the start of the week, led by western Quebec and the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).
Those two areas, and now Renfrew County, report more COVID-19 hospitalizations than ever before. Renfrew County reported 14 of these patients in its weekly update Thursday, up from nine last week.
Two more EOHU residents with COVID-19 have died. That health unit has reported five COVID deaths in the past three days.
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is that exception mentioned above, reporting all COVID-19 patients in its hospitals regardless of their reason for admittance, or whether they are local residents.
