Ottawa's stable COVID-19 spring ticks on
Recent developments:
Ottawa's COVID-19 numbers are generally stable.
The EOHU's COVID risk level drops.
More than 150 local people with COVID have now died in 2023.
The latest
Generally, Ottawa's COVID indicators have remained stable or have dropped for about three months. Increases have not risen to levels Ottawa Public Health (OPH) sees as concerning.
Experts recommend people wear masks indoors and, in Ontario, in the days after having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sick and staying up to date with COVID vaccines can also help protect vulnerable people.
Wastewater
Data from the research team shows the average coronavirus wastewater level was slowly, unevenly rising for about a month. As of April 16, it had dropped three of the previous four days.
OPH considers this level to be very high. The highest reading on record was about a year ago.
Hospitals
The number of Ottawa residents in local hospitals for COVID-19 has been generally stable around 20 for about two months. It's 16 in Tuesday's update, with no ICU patients.
A separate count that includes patients who tested positive for COVID after being admitted for other reasons, those admitted for lingering COVID complications, and those transferred from other health units is stable.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Ottawa has a stable 13 active COVID outbreaks, all but one in a care home. According to OPH, that number is considered moderate.
The city's COVID-19 test positivity rate has stayed around eight or nine per cent this month, which OPH says is also moderate.
OPH reported 52 more COVID cases since Friday and the deaths of two people who had COVID, both age 80 or above.
Vaccines
Twenty-one per cent of Ottawans age five and older have had a COVID-19 vaccine dose within the last six months, with older age groups having higher vaccination rates. This does not factor in immunity from getting COVID.
Ontario's vaccine recommendations changed earlier this month to focus on higher-risk people.
Ottawa residents went for about 200 COVID vaccine doses in the last six days, according to OPH.
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
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU)'s COVID-19 risk level moves from moderate to low.
Coronavirus wastewater averages are stable in Kingston, Brockville and Smiths Falls. They're otherwise out of date or unavailable outside of Ottawa.
The Kingston area's health unit says regular testing of wastewater has stopped in Amherstview, pointing to a provincial wastewater page that mentions a strategic sampling plan starting this month.
That area's average COVID test positivity drops to around nine per cent.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report 20 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with four patients in intensive care.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which shares a weekly average of its local hospitalization count. That drops to around six patients.
Western Quebec has 40 hospital patients with COVID. None of them are in intensive care.
One more COVID death was reported in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties. Including Ottawa, more than 150 local COVID deaths have now been reported in 2023.
About 600 of these deaths happened in 2020, another 500 in 2021 and more than 1,000 last year.
Vaccines
The Kingston area's health unit says 18 per cent of its population age five and up have had a COVID vaccine in the last six months. It drops to 20 per cent in HPE and remains 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, according to the province.
