- Ottawa’s pandemic trends are stable or declining.
- One more death has been reported by COVID-19 in Ottawa.
- Hospitalizations in Leeds-Grenville-Lanark, EOHU are declining.
Ottawa update today
Wastewater
The level of coronavirus detected in Ottawa’s wastewater has been declining very slowly for about 10 days.
The most recent data available (the bold red line in the chart below) shows that the seven-day average calculated on May 29 remained about twice as high as it was in early March, before the current peak.
It is about five times higher than in late fall before Omicron arrived.
Researchers who measured and shared the amount of nine coronaviruses in Ottawa’s wastewater reported new pandemic records for daily and weekly average readings in April 2022. The most recent data are from May 29. . (613covid.ca)
Hospitals
Fourteen Ottawa residents are in local hospitals to be treated for COVID-19, according to the OPH update on Wednesday. This number has generally ranged from 10 to 20 for almost three weeks.
Two of the patients are in intensive care, which is stable.
The above hospitalization figures do not include all patients. For example, they exclude patients admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID-19, those admitted for persistent complications of COVID-19, and those transferred from other health care units.
When these categories are included, there were 57 patients on Monday, a slight decrease from the 60 patients in the previous update.
Ottawa Public Health has a COVID-19 hospital count that shows all hospital patients who tested positive for COVID, including those admitted for other reasons, and who live in other areas. There were 57 on May 30th. (Ottawa Public Health)
Tests, outbreaks and cases
Testing strategies have changed with the contagious variant of Omicron, which means that many cases of COVID-19 are not reflected in current counts. Public health only monitors and reports outbreaks that occur in healthcare settings.
At about nine percent, the average Ottawa positivity rate for those who received PCR testing outside of long-term care homes is stable. The average inside homes is six percent, which has been slowly declining.
Ottawa has 20 active COVID outbreaks on Wednesday. This figure has been slowly declining, but this is a one-day increase.
On Wednesday, OPH reported 66 more cases, as well as one more death of a 70-year-old resident. There have now been a total of 811 deaths from COVID in Ottawa during the pandemic.
The continuous weekly incidence rate of recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 population, is around 25.
Vaccines
As of Monday’s weekly update, 92% of Ottawa residents age five and older have at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 89% of those eligible residents have two.
The percentage of residents aged 12 and over with a third dose is 63%, while 10% of this age group have received four.
Throughout the region
Wastewater levels in the Kingston area and in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties are generally stable or declining.
The exception is a recent increase in the Kemptville area, which returns to its average levels last seen about a month ago.
Measures elsewhere are at least one week old or not publicly available.
Western Quebec has about 50 hospitalizations for COVID, including patients who are no longer considered active cases. It’s a slight drop from last week’s number. Two of these patients need intensive care.
Eastern Ontario communities outside of Ottawa are reporting about 30 hospitalizations for COVID-19, including about five in intensive care. Both figures are stable.
None of these numbers in eastern Ontario include Hastings Prince Edward’s public health (HPE) which, like western Quebec, has a different counting method.
LGL’s four local COVID hospitalizations on Wednesday arrive after it ranged from five to nine in May. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) went down to two local COVID hospitalizations.
Vaccines
About 5.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given to people in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Quebec estimates that about 78 percent of Outaouais residents are “properly vaccinated,” which may be a combination of recent vaccination and infection.
For each of the Eastern Ontario health units, there are between 81 and 92 per cent of eligible residents with at least two doses of vaccine and between 59 and 71 per cent of adults with three doses.