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Recent developments:
- Ottawa’s COVID-19 numbers are generally stable.
- Individual trends are very high.
- Flu and RSV activity is high.
- A local hospital under strain asks sick people to skip holiday gatherings.
- Nineteen more COVID deaths have been reported locally.
The latest
The holiday push for COVID-19 and flu vaccination continues as the respiratory illness season grinds on.
According to the latest numbers, COVID rates in Ottawa are generally stable, but very high. Flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity is also high.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) says the city’s health-care institutions remain at high risk from respiratory illnesses, as they have been since the start of September and are expected to remain until at least March.
“We expect respiratory illness activity across the city to increase this winter,” wrote Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches Thursday in a message co-signed by local hospital leaders.
Experts recommend people cover coughs and sneezes, wear masks, keep their hands and often-touched surfaces clean, stay home when sick and keep up to date with COVID and flu vaccines to help protect themselves and other vulnerable people — especially during one of the busiest social times of the year.
Forced to place patients with respiratory illnesses in hallways, the Kingston Health Sciences Centrein particular is urging people to stay home to control the spread.
“[This year] more people are gathering, fewer people are wearing masks,” Etches said earlier this week.
“There are many variables, but given our current context, it is clear that more vaccination of older adults would help.”
WATCH | The calls for vaccination in Ottawa:
Amid high levels of respiratory viruses across the city, Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches said it would help if more people, especially older adults, got their updated vaccines.
Wastewater
As of Dec. 7, the average coronavirus wastewater level was still rising, as it has generally done for about five months, to one of its highest levels of 2023. It then dropped for three days.
OPH considers this very high.
Hospitals
In the past week, the average number of Ottawa residents in local hospitals for COVID-19 has fallen slightly to 64. It had been been in and around the 70s since early November. That includes one patient in an ICU.
A separate, wider count — which includes patients who tested positive for COVID after being admitted for other reasons, were admitted for lingering COVID complications or were transferred from other health units — is stable.
There were 70 new patients in the previous week. OPH sees this as a very high number.
Tests, outbreaks, vaccines and deaths
Ottawa’s weekly average test positivity rate is about 19 per cent. It has been around 20 per cent for the last month. OPH categorizes this as very high.
There are 35 active COVID outbreaks, about half in retirement homes. The total is down after a rise the previous week and there is a very high number of new outbreaks.
The health unit reported 275 more COVID cases in the last week and 10 more COVID deaths, seven of them 80 or older.
According to OPH’s latest COVID vaccination update, as of Dec. 11, only 20 per cent of residents over six months old have received a dose in the past six months.
These figures don’t account for immunity from a recent infection. The length time people should wait between infection and vaccination varies from eight weeks to six months, depending on their circumstances.
Even if you’re not certain you’ve developed immunity, Etches said there’s no harm in getting the shot.
Across the region
Spread and vaccination
The Kingston area’s health unit says its COVID and RSV trends are stable at moderate to very high levels, while flu trends are low to moderate and rising.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) says it’s also in a high-risk time for respiratory illness. COVID and flu benchmarks there are high, while other respiratory infections are moderate and rising.
“Right now hospitals are depleted and it’ll take less for them to be overburdened,” said the EOHU’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Paul Roumeliotis on Wednesday.
He said this flu season is closer to the anticipated timing than last year’s, which sucker-punched the health-care system by arriving early.
WATCH | The medical officer of health’s update:
Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health says 17 per cent of its residents have had a COVID vaccine in the last six months, up from 16 per cent last week.
Hospitalizations and deaths
The EOHU has 19 COVID hospitalizations, which it says is high.
The Kingston area’s health unit says it has 21 active COVID-19 patients in its hospitals, including anyone living in a different health unit. That is seen as high and stable.
HPE, like Ottawa, gives a weekly COVID hospital average: a stable 21, with two ICU patients.
Western Quebec has a stable 80 hospital patients who have tested positive for COVID. The province reports five more COVID deaths there, bringing the total to 534.
The health unit for Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties reported two more COVID deaths in the past week for 36 deaths in 2023 and 179 total. The EOHU’s total rises to 329 with two more reported deaths.
LGL data goes up to Nov. 26, when its trends were generally high and rising. Renfrew County’s last update was Nov. 30 and its next is expected Thursday.
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