Bid hunters go through clothes hangers installed on a sidewalk during the Great Glebe garage sale, which returned from a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa on May 28. 2022. (Justin Tang / The Canadian Press)
- Ottawa’s pandemic trends are stable or declining.
- Its residents have received about 20,000 doses of vaccine in the last two weeks.
- Four local deaths were reported by COVID-19 on Monday.
Ottawa update today
Wastewater
The level of coronavirus detected in Ottawa wastewater has been stable 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 25 remained slightly more than double what it was in early March, before the current peak.
It is more than six 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 25. . (613covid.ca)
Hospitals
Fourteen Ottawa residents are in local hospitals to be treated for COVID-19, according to the OPH update on Monday. Two of the patients are in intensive care.
Both numbers dropped for about two weeks from the end of April, then have remained stable for about two weeks.
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 60 patients on Saturday. This is less than the previous pair of updates.
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 60 on May 28th. (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 seven percent, the average Ottawa positivity rate for those who received PCR testing outside of long-term care homes is stable. The average inside the home is five percent, which is slowly declining.
Ottawa has 19 active COVID outbreaks on Monday. This figure has been falling very slowly.
On Monday, OPH reported 113 more cases over three days and three more deaths. This brings the number of deaths per COVID in the city to 26 people this month and 807 people in total.
The continuous weekly incidence rate of recently confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 population, is about 25.
Vaccines
916,961: The number of Ottawa residents aged five and over with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, about 400 more than the last OPH update two weeks ago. That’s still 92 percent of the eligible population.
881,483: The number of Ottawa residents aged five and over with a second dose, about 650 since the last update. That’s still 89 percent of the eligible population.
577,660: The number of Ottawans 12 years of age or older with a third dose, about 400 since the last update. That’s still 63 percent of those residents; younger children can only qualify under certain health conditions.
Ten percent of residents 12 years of age or older have a fourth dose, or about 91,600 people. That’s more than 17,000 fourth doses since the last update.
Throughout the region
Wastewater levels in the Kingston area and in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties are stable or declining.
Measures elsewhere are at least one week old or not publicly available.
Western Quebec has about 55 hospitalizations for COVID, including patients who are no longer considered active cases. Two of these patients need intensive care. Both numbers remained stable last week.
Eastern Ontario communities outside of Ottawa are reporting about 35 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 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 reported on Monday its 107th death by COVID. His hospitalizations for COVID have remained stable between five and nine this month.
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.