Ottawa Public Health (OPH) reported 52 new COVID-19 cases Monday as the number of patients in hospital remains relatively stable.

A total of 6,088 Ottawa residents have now tested positive for COVID-19, including 759 active case, 5,026 resolved cases and 303 deaths.

Forty-eight patients are currently in hospital for treatment for COVID-19, one more than Sunday. Eight are in intensive care.

Based on these interim daily reports, adjusted later when OPH determines when individuals became infections versus when they learned of their positive test, Ottawa's rolling seven-day average of newly confirmed cases has dropped five of the last six days from its all-time high.

That number is still around where it peaked during the first wave in late April, and much higher than when Ottawa's second wave was declared just over a month ago on Sept. 18.

The percentage of tests that come back positive remains at 2.5 per cent, around where it has been for days.

OPH learns about a positive test within 48 hours 71 per cent of the time, a slight improvement over late last week. OPH will release more details about the current testing backlog later this afternoon.

Ottawa's newest testing site at the Ray Friel Recreation Complex in Orléans is now open weekdays, but laboratory capacity also factors into the backlog.

There is a new outbreak at the Peak Academy, a hockey-focused school located at the Bell Sensplex, and the outbreak is over at Abraar Elementary School. Active outbreaks have been declared in nine Ottawa schools.

In a break from the norm, slightly more than half of the new cases reported Monday are people over the age of 40.

Elsewhere, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit east and south of Ottawa logged 26 more cases over the weekend for a total of 435.

More than half that region's known cases have come since the end of August.