COVID trends remain mostly steady in Ottawa
Wastewater readings are at their lowest level since the start of December
Recent developments:
- Ottawa's COVID-19 levels are mostly stable.
- Its weekly vaccination number keeps dropping.
- Three more people with COVID have died in the region.
The latest
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has said for weeks that respiratory virus trends are encouraging but it's still worthwhile to reduce risks as COVID-19 levels remain high.
Experts strongly recommend people wear masks indoors and, in Ontario, in the days after having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sick and being up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines also help protect vulnerable people.
Non-COVID respiratory virus levels are generally low.
Wastewater
Data from the research team shows, as of Feb. 12, the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater had dropped to its lowest level of 2023.
Last week OPH considered the average to be very high.
Hospitals
The health unit's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is stable at 30. That number has hovered around that number so far in 2023.
One of the patients is in intensive care.
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 count is also stable.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Ottawa's COVID-19 test positivity rate remains around 11 per cent, which OPH calls moderate.
Ottawa has 16 active COVID outbreaks — another trend OPH considers moderate — which has been stable this month.
OPH has reported 116 more COVID cases since Friday and the death of one more person with COVID. In all, 1,018 Ottawa residents have died since the start of the pandemic with COVID as a contributing or underlying factor.
Vaccines
Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most recent COVID vaccine dose within the last six months, as is generally recommended, with older age groups having higher 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.
The weekly number of COVID vaccine doses given in Ottawa dropped again last week to 1,376, continuing a trend that started around the end of November.
Across the region
Spread
Coronavirus wastewater averages are stable across the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU), except for a rising average in Morrisburg.
They're stable or dropping across Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties and otherwise out of date or unavailable outside of Ottawa.
The Kingston area's average test positivity of about 12 per cent is its lowest of 2023.
The EOHU's COVID risk level is considered low.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report about 25 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with three patients in intensive care.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its local hospitalization count rises to 17 patients, its highest number since November.
Western Quebec has 79 COVID hospital patients, which is dropping. One of them is in intensive care.
HPE reported two more COVID deaths in the past week for a pandemic total of 109.
Vaccines
The Kingston area's health unit says 32 per cent of its population age five and up have had a vaccine in the last six months. It's 26 per cent in HPE and 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.
