- Ottawa’s pandemic trends are going “in the right direction,” OPH says.
- Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is sending a similar message.
Ottawa update today
Ottawa Public Health tweeted Thursday morning that the city’s pandemic trends are heading in the right direction. He considers that the current average of wastewater is at a moderate level and that hospitalizations, outbreaks and the positivity of the tests are low.
COVID SNAPSHOT-19 – JUNE 2, 2022
Our tracking indicators continue to move in the right direction. This is really encouraging, but it does not mean that the pandemic is over. We cannot lose sight of our progress.
Watch this week’s video & amp; tweets below for more information. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/cgO1mbId7Y
– @OttawaHealth
Wastewater
The level of coronavirus detected in Ottawa’s wastewater has been declining very slowly for about two weeks.
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.
Hospitals
Fifteen Ottawa residents are in local hospitals receiving treatment for COVID-19, according to Friday’s OPH update. This number has generally ranged from 10 to 20 for almost three weeks.
A patient is in intensive care.
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 52 patients on Friday, a slight decrease from the 57 patients in the previous update.
(OPH)
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.
Ottawa has 20 active COVID outbreaks on Thursday. This figure has been slowly declining, but has not changed since Thursday.
On Friday, OPH reported 55 more cases, but no new deaths.
The continuous weekly incidence rate of recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 population, is around 29.
Tests and vaccines
At about eight 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 seven percent, up from Monday.
As of Friday’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 increased in late May. The jump returns its average to the levels last observed about a month ago.
Western Quebec has about 55 hospitalizations for COVID. A patient requires intensive care.
Communities in eastern Ontario outside of Ottawa report 19 hospitalizations for COVID-19, which have been slowly declining. About four are in intensive care, which is a stable number.
None of these numbers in eastern Ontario include Hastings Prince Edward’s public health (HPE) which, like western Quebec, has a different counting method.
HPE hospitalization drops to 11; the last time it was so low was in late March. Her health doctor says her pandemic trends are going in the right direction.
Vaccines
More than 5.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given to people in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Quebec estimates that about 78% 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.