No relief from the flu as Quebec calls for family holiday caution
Ottawa's COVID-19 trends are stable or rising
Recent developments:
- Ottawa's COVID-19 trends are stable or rising.
- Its flu wastewater level rises, cases and tests are stable.
- The city's COVID vaccine pace slightly slows.
- The level of flu activity remains high in the Belleville area.
The latest guidance
Local officials say the health-care system, particularly for children, is under a lot of pressure. The flu season is worse and started earlier than normal, plus there are the continued challenges of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Ottawa's children's hospital CHEO is getting staffing help from the Canadian Red Cross.
Quebec's public health director said Monday parents of babies should potentially reconsider big family gatherings and visits this year to avoid high-risk situations.
- Red Cross is just the latest step in CHEO's long-term plea for help
- 'Intense' flu season hits Canadian kids hard, landing more in hospital
Experts strongly recommend people wear masks indoors.
Staying home when sick, keeping hands and surfaces clean and keeping up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines are also recommended to help keep people safe, especially more vulnerable people including children.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH)'s weekly flu report said activity and test positivity are stable compared to last week but still above the usual pre-pandemic winter peak. Test positivity remains around 28 per cent.
Wastewater
Data from the research team says the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, as of Dec. 6, has been rising for six days back to roughly around where it was a month ago.
OPH said Thursday flu levels in wastewater are very high. COVID and RSV levels are moderate.
Hospitals
OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is a stable 18, according to Tuesday's update, with four patients in intensive care.
The health unit says the number of COVID hospital admissions is moderate.
There is another count that includes other patients, such as people admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID, those admitted for lingering COVID complications, and those transferred from other health units.
That number is up slightly from where it was over the previous two weeks.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Testing strategies changed under the Omicron variant, meaning many COVID-19 cases aren't reflected in counts. Public health officials now only track and report outbreaks in health-care settings.
Ottawa's COVID test positivity rate rises to about 14 per cent after a steady decline. OPH considered it moderate last week.
There are 19 active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is low, according to OPH, and the number may be stabilizing after a steady drop.
The health unit also reports two flu outbreaks, while the number of "other" respiratory illness outbreaks — nearly all in child-care settings — are slightly down at 35. Five of these outbreaks in schools have more than 100 cases, though, with the most at 177 cases.
OPH reported 156 more COVID cases over four days and the deaths of five people with COVID who ranged in age from their 60s to 90 or above. In all, 975 Ottawa residents who had COVID have died since the start of the pandemic, including 365 of them this year.
Vaccines
As of the most recent weekly update, 93 per cent of Ottawa residents aged five and up had at least one COVID vaccine dose, 90 per cent had at least two and 62 per cent at least three.
Thirty-four per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at least four doses.
Ottawa residents received about 8,900 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last week, according to OPH. About 6,900 of them were fourth doses.
That number is down slightly from recent weeks. When it comes to the number of doses administered by OPH, the most recent week was the first with fewer than 10,000 vaccine doses given since late September.
About 9,050 residents younger than five have had a first dose, which is about 20 per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,950, or nine per cent, have had two.
WATCH | Looking into the slow uptake of COVID vaccines for young kids:
Across the region
Spread
Coronavirus wastewater trends are low and stable in Kingston and low across sites in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties. They're slowly rising in Casselman, Cornwall and Hawkesbury.
Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.
The average COVID-19 test positivity in the Belleville area rose slightly to about 10 per cent after generally dropping for more than two months. Its level of flu activity remains high.
Average test positivity rises to around 15 per cent in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. It's been between 10 and 18 per cent since the end of summer. It's been falling about two months in the Kingston area to sit around six per cent.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Western Quebec's health authority, CISSSO, reported a rise to 97 COVID-19 hospitalizations. None of the patients are in intensive care.
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report about 35 COVID hospitalizations, with five of these patients in intensive care.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its count rose to six Tuesday and has been generally low and stable for nearly two weeks.
Two more HPE residents with COVID have died, bringing its 2022 total to 77 and its pandemic total to 96. Other health units with updates Tuesday didn't report any more deaths.
This is by far the deadliest year for reported COVID-19 deaths in the wider Ottawa-Gatineau region, with nearly half of its more than 2,000 reported COVID deaths coming in 2022.
Vaccines
Across eastern Ontario, between 81 and 92 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 53 and 65 per cent of those residents have had at least three.
