COVID-19 hospitalizations and active cases creep up in Ottawa

Cases set to climb Projections for Ontario show uncertainty ahead of holidays, but ICU currently stable. CTV’s Jeremie Charron reports.

OTTAWA — Ottawa Public Health says 49 more people in the city have tested positive for COVID-19 and the number of patients in local hospitals with the disease continues to rise.

To date, OPH has reported 31,372 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa residents since the pandemic began. No new deaths linked to COVID-19 were reported on Sunday, leaving the city's pandemic death toll at 609 residents.

The number of known active cases of COVID-19 continues to rise, as does the number of people in local hospitals with an active case.

Medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said last week that many of the people in hospital with COVID-19 are linked to ongoing outbreaks in hospitals and some infections are mild or even asymptomatic.

There are currently four distinct outbreaks in different units of the Ottawa Hospital's Civic Campus and two outbreaks at the General Campus. The outbreaks at the Civic Campus involve at least 37 patients and 13 staff members. Two patients have died. At the General Campus, outbreaks have affected four patients and three staff members. No deaths are linked to these outbreaks.

The seven-day average in Ottawa is 38.7 cases per day, up from 34.1 cases per day one week ago, and up from 26.6 cases per day four weeks ago.

Across the province, health officials reported 666 new cases of COVID-19. Seven more Ontarians have died due to the disease, including three whose deaths occurred more than a month ago. They were added Sunday in a data cleanup.

The province also confirmed that 467 previously reported cases are now considered resolved.

OTTAWA'S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS

Ottawa Public Health data:

Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.

UNVACCINATED CASES

Of the 666 new infections reported Sunday across Ontario, 300 cases involved people who are unvaccinated, 24 were in partially vaccinated individuals and 300 infections involved people who are fully vaccinated. The remaining 42 cases involve people whose vaccination status is unknown.

Breaking it down by population, There are 9.31 COVID-19 cases for every 100,000 unvaccinated people in Ontario compared to 2.72 cases for every 100,000 fully vaccinated people. More than 11 million Ontarians are fully vaccinated.

The vaccination data of Ontarians who are hospitalized with COVID-19 in unavailable on Sundays because not all hospitals report to the province on weekends.

Locally, Ottawa Public Health says unvaccinated residents are six times more likely to contract COVID-19 than fully vaccinated residents are. The five-week rate of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population for the period of Oct. 2 to Nov. 5 was 50.8 cases per 100,000 fully vaccinated residents and 292.6 cases per 100,000 unvaccinated residents.

COVID-19 VACCINES IN OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health updates vaccine numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

As of Friday:

*Total doses received does not include doses shipped to pharmacies and primary care clinics, but statistics on Ottawa residents with one or two doses includes anyone with an Ottawa postal code who was vaccinated anywhere in Ontario.

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA

There are 363 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Sunday, up from 331 active cases on Saturday.

Ottawa Public Health reported 17 more newly resolved cases of COVID-19. The total number of resolved cases of coronavirus in Ottawa is 30,400.

The number of active cases is the number of total laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is considered resolved 14 days after known symptom onset or positive test result.

HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA

There are 27 people in Ottawa area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses on Sunday, up from 25 on Saturday.

There are five patients with COVID-19 in Ottawa ICUs, up from four.

Age categories of people in hospital:

(Ottawa Public Health is now reporting people in hospital with an "active" infection)

COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

Ottawa Public Health data:

*OPH notes that that VOC and mutation trends must be treated with caution due to the varying time required to complete VOC testing and/or genomic analysis following the initial positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Test results may be completed in batches and data corrections or updates can result in changes to case counts that may differ from past reports.

CASES OF COVID-19 AROUND THE REGION

COVID-19 OUTBREAKS

Ottawa Public Health reports COVID-19 outbreaks at institutions and community outbreaks in Ottawa.

Community outbreaks:

Schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks: (seven elementary schools, one secondary school)

Healthcare and congregate settings experiencing outbreaks: