Wastewater the key exception to encouraging COVID-19 update
Recent developments:
Ottawa's COVID-19 numbers are mostly dropping.
However, its average coronavirus wastewater reading has risen for a month.
Seven more local people with COVID have died.
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 has been rising for about a month as of April 11.
OPH considers this level to be high.
Hospitals
The number of Ottawa residents in local hospitals for COVID-19 has been generally stable around 20 for about two months. It dropped to 13 in Friday's update.
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 has dropped.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Ottawa drops to 11 active COVID outbreaks. 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 67 more COVID cases since Tuesday and the deaths of six people who had COVID.
Vaccines
Ontario's vaccine recommendations changed last week.
Booster doses are recommended for higher-risk people after six months, while people who aren't higher risk and have had a booster since September 2022 are told to wait for an update closer to autumn.
Twenty-three 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.
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 remains moderate.
Coronavirus wastewater averages are slowly rising in Kingston. They're otherwise out of date or unavailable outside of Ottawa.
Renfrew County's average COVID test positivity rate is stable around six per cent.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report about 15 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with two 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 eight patients.
Western Quebec has 40 hospital patients with COVID. None of them are in intensive care.
That province has changed its database and criteria for COVID deaths. Quebec now only reports a death when COVID is an underlying cause.
The Outaouais now has 472 total COVID deaths, 26 of them this year, including one from the previous week.
Vaccines
The Kingston area's health unit says 19 per cent of its population age five and up have had a COVID vaccine in the last six months. It drops to 21 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.
