Ottawa’s COVID image largely steady, apart from wastewater

Ottawa’s COVID image largely steady, apart from wastewater

Current developments:

  • Ottawa’s COVID-19 tendencies are largely steady.
  • A rapidly rising coronavirus wastewater common is the exception.
  • About 4,100 extra Ottawans acquired a COVID vaccine.
  • Twelve extra COVID deaths have been reported within the area.

The most recent steering

The health-care system, notably for youngsters, has been below loads of stress due to COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), leading to lengthy wait instances and unprecedented strikes to attempt to cope.

Consultants strongly advocate folks put on masks indoors and, in Ontario, within the days after having COVID signs.

Staying house when sick, holding arms and surfaces clear and holding up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines are additionally really helpful to assist hold folks secure, particularly extra weak folks together with kids.

CBC Ottawa takes a take a look at COVID tendencies on Tuesdays and Fridays. A broader take a look at respiratory sicknesses comes on Wednesdays: Ottawa Public Well being (OPH) says flu exercise is taken into account steady whereas different respiratory sickness exercise, together with COVID, is rising.

Wastewater

Knowledge from the analysis group says the weekly common degree of coronavirus in Ottawa’s wastewater, as of Jan. 8, had been rising for the reason that final week of November, and the tempo of that rise has sped up for the reason that final week of December. 

The COVID ranges have doubled since Dec. 26. It is solely been larger three earlier instances, although there is not information from the primary wave.

Ottawa Public Well being (OPH) considers this degree to be very excessive.

A bar and line graph of coronavirus wastewater levels since June 2020.
Researchers measuring and sharing the quantity of novel coronavirus in Ottawa’s wastewater have discovered it rising for about six weeks. The newest information is from Jan. 8, 2023. (613covid.ca)

Hospitals

OPH’s depend of energetic, native COVID-19 hospital sufferers sits at 35, in accordance with Tuesday’s replace, with one affected person in intensive care. That is steady after an increase in Friday’s replace.

There may be one other depend that features different sufferers, similar to folks admitted for different causes who then check optimistic for COVID, these admitted for lingering COVID issues, and people transferred from different well being items.

That quantity has been steady.

A graphic breaking down Ottawa COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Ottawa Public Well being has a COVID-19 hospital depend that reveals all hospital sufferers who examined optimistic for COVID, together with these admitted for different causes, and who dwell in different areas. It was round 130 Dec. 11 and at 84 on Jan. 4. (Ottawa Public Well being)

Assessments, outbreaks and deaths

Ottawa’s COVID-19 check positivity fee stays round 19 per cent. OPH considers this excessive. Testing methods modified on the finish of 2021 and many circumstances aren’t mirrored in counts.

There are 30 energetic COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This depend has been steady this month and it’s thought of average.

OPH reported 190 extra COVID circumstances over 4 days and the deaths of 4 folks who had COVID: two of them age 90 or above, one of their 70s, and one of their 80s.

In all, 994 Ottawa residents who had COVID have died for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

Vaccines

Thirty-five per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most up-to-date dose throughout the final six months, as is usually really helpful, with older age teams having larger charges.

Extra folks have additionally acquired their final vaccine over a yr in the past in comparison with residents who final had a shot six to 12 months in the past.

This doesn’t consider immunity from getting COVID.

 An infographic of how recently Ottawa residents have had their last COVID-19 vaccine. It includes stacked bar graphs by age group.
Ottawa Public Well being shares when residents age 12 and older final had a COVID-19 vaccine. (Ottawa Public Well being)

About 4,100 Ottawa residents had a COVID vaccine within the final six days, OPH mentioned. That is greater than the earlier week however lower than the weekly tempo in autumn. Almost all had been third and fourth doses.

As of the newest weekly replace, 93 per cent of Ottawa residents aged 5 and up had at the least one COVID vaccine dose, 90 per cent had at the least two and 62 per cent at the least three.

Thirty-six per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at the least 4 doses.

About 9,550 residents youthful than 5 have had a primary dose, which is about 21 per cent of Ottawa’s inhabitants of that age group. About 5,050, or 11 per cent, have had two.

Throughout the area

Unfold

Coronavirus wastewater information averages are excessive and rising in Brockville, and excessive and extra steady elsewhere in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties. Knowledge for different areas exterior Ottawa is old-fashioned or unavailable.

The typical COVID-19 check positivity within the Belleville space is a excessive, steady 20 per cent. It is also excessive and steady round 18 per cent within the Japanese Ontario Well being Unit (EOHU).

Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) Public Well being’s check positivity dropped from a record-high 25 per cent over the vacations, when the testing dynamic was totally different, to 18 per cent.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Japanese Ontario communities exterior Ottawa report about 45 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with seven sufferers in intensive care. Each are larger than they had been final week.

That regional depend would not embrace Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Well being, which has a distinct counting technique. It has at the least 10 native COVID hospitalizations for the primary time in about two months.

Western Quebec’s well being authority, CISSSO, reviews a steady 86 COVID hospitalizations. None of the sufferers are in intensive care.

The EOHU’s COVID loss of life toll rises to 282 folks, with three extra deaths reported since Friday. HPE, with two extra reported COVID deaths, now has a complete of 101.

KFL&A’s two extra COVID deaths imply it has reported 105 up to now. LGL reported another loss of life for a complete of 145 folks.

Vaccines

The Kingston space’s well being unit says that 33 per cent of its inhabitants age 5 and up have had a booster vaccine within the final six months. That quantity is 27 per cent in HPE and unavailable elsewhere.

Throughout jap Ontario, between 82 and 93 per cent of residents age 5 and up have acquired at the least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 53 and 65 per cent of these residents have had at the least three.