Focus shifts to flu levels in Ottawa as December arrives
CBC News | Posted: December 2, 2022 6:32 PM | Last Updated: December 2, 2022
CHEO situation still challenging, slightly better than 2 weeks ago, CEO says
Recent developments:
- Ottawa's flu level is very high in wastewater, while COVID-19 and RSV are moderate.
- City's other COVID trends are mostly stable.
- The load on CHEO's emergency room has lessened.
The latest guidance
Local officials say the health-care system, particularly for children, is under a lot of pressure because of a flu season that is worse and started earlier, plus the continued challenges of COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
- Quebec needs more nurses to answer flood of telehealth calls
- Free rapid COVID-19 tests available at Ontario stores through end of June 2023
Ottawa's weekly respiratory snapshot Thursday said flu levels in wastewater are very high. COVID and RSV levels are moderate. All in all, there is a high level of respiratory viruses circulating in the city, it said.
The CEO of CHEO, eastern Ontario's children's hospital in Ottawa, said Thursday very young children are getting very sick and procedures are being delayed, but the still-unprecedented load on its emergency department is better than it was two weeks ago.
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.
Wastewater
Data from researchers says the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, as of Nov. 29, dropped for most of November and has more recently been stable for about a week.
That same wastewater research team says flu levels are rising and RSV levels are stable.
Hospitals
OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is a stable 17, according to Friday'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 remains generally stable.
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 drops to about nine per cent, which OPH now considers moderate. As recently as one month ago, it was very high.
There are 19 active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is now low, according to OPH, and the number has been dropping.
The health unit also reports two flu outbreaks, while the number of "other" respiratory illness outbreaks — nearly all in child-care settings — are stable at 43. Six of these outbreaks in schools have more than 100 cases, though, with the most at 175 cases.
OPH reported 154 more COVID cases over three days and the deaths of two people age 80 and above with COVID. In all, 970 Ottawa residents who had COVID have died since the start of the pandemic, including 360 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-19 vaccine dose, 90 per cent had at least two and 61 per cent at least three.
Thirty-three per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at least four doses.
About 9,000 residents younger than five have had a first dose, which is about 20 per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,750, or eight per cent, have had two.
Across the region
Spread
Wastewater trends are stable in Kingston, Cornwall and Morrisburg and rising in Hawkesbury. Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.
COVID test positivity in Renfrew County rises back up to around 14 per cent. It's around 10 per cent in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).
The EOHU's Dr. Paul Roumeliotis said in his weekly update that general COVID trends are slowly dropping.
WATCH | The medical officer of health's update:
Hospitalizations and deaths
Western Quebec's health authority, CISSSO, reported a rise to 93 COVID-19 hospitalizations. One of the patients is in intensive care.
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report a drop to about 35 COVID hospitalizations. Their six intensive care COVID patients are all in the Kingston area.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its count dropped to two Tuesday for the first time since July.
Two more western Quebec residents with COVID died in the past week, bringing the toll to 363. Renfrew Country's health unit reported its 68th such death of the year and 81st overall. The EOHU had its 273rd COVID death.
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.