Respiratory rates high but stable as city ushers in 2024

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 numbers are generally high and stable.
• Flu and RSV activity is also high.
• Thirteen more COVID deaths have been reported locally.

The latest

COVID-19, flu and RSV rates in Ottawa are all generally high and stable as we start into 2024, according to the latest data from Ottawa Public Health (OPH).

Flu levels in wastewater and flu-related hospitalizations are considered very high, as are COVID levels in wastewater and RSV hospitalizations.

There's generally been more flu and COVID in the city's wastewater this season than last, but less RSV. Flu hospitalizations started to rise in mid-November as the number of local COVID and RSV patients dropped.

OPH says the city's health-care institutions remain at high risk from respiratory illnesses, as they have been since the start of September and are expected to remain until at least March.

Experts recommend people cover coughs, wear masks, keep hands and often-touched surfaces clean; stay home when sick and keep up with COVID and flu vaccines to help protect themselves and other vulnerable people.

In Ottawa

Spread

Ottawa hit its highest coronavirus wastewater average of 2023 on New Year's Eve. It then eased slightly in the first few days of 2024.

The average has generally been rising for about six months, with more uneven growth over the last three months.

"This is not a short wave," researcher Tyson Graber told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning earlier this week. Based on European trends, Graber said levels should continue rising for another few weeks.

The weekly average test positivity rate is about 17 per cent, which is stable and considered high, down from very high.

Hospitalizations, outbreaks and deaths

In the past week, the average number of Ottawa residents in local hospitals for COVID-19 has dropped to 46.

A separate, wider count — which includes patients who tested positive for COVID after being admitted for other reasons, were admitted for lingering COVID complications or were transferred from other health units — is stable.

Patient numbers remained stable at 39 during the previous week, a level considered moderate by OPH.

The active COVID outbreak count is stable at 24, with nearly all in long-term care or retirement homes. There is a high number of new outbreaks.

The health unit reported 221 more COVID cases and five more COVID deaths in the last week, all 80 or older.

Ottawa has now passed 1,200 reported COVID deaths, about two-thirds within that 80+ age group.

OPH's next vaccination update is expected next week.

Across the region

The Kingston area's health unit says flu trends there are high and rising, little has changed in its RSV picture and COVID indicators are dropping, though the wastewater average remains very high.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU)'s big-picture assessment rates the overall respiratory risk as high, whether that's related to COVID, flu or RSV. Individual categories seen as very high include the COVID wastewater level, flu outbreaks and both COVID and flu test positivity.

Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, like Ottawa, gives a weekly COVID case hospital average. That has risen to 39, which is its highest average since autumn 2022. Flu numbers there remain low.

Western Quebec has 62 hospital patients who have tested positive for COVID, its lowest count in three months. The province reported four more deaths there.

One more COVID death was reported in each of HPE, the EOHU, the Kingston area and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties.

Data LGL counties goes up to Dec. 31, when its trends were generally high. Renfrew County's next update is expected Thursday.