Ottawa breaks daily COVID-19 case count record for second day in a row

Ontario's COVID-19 numbers 'scary' The Ford government is considering even tougher measures as cases skyrocket, and vaccine supply runs low. CTV's Megan Shaw reports.

OTTAWA — Ottawa Public Health is reporting 234 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19, setting a new daily case count record just one day after reporting a record 210 new cases in the city.

The new cases also bring Ottawa's number of known active cases to more than 1,000 for the first time. OPH is reporting 1,104 active cases of COVID-19 in the city.

Saturday's provincial report includes 3,443 new cases of COVID-19 across Ontario and 40 new deaths. Ontario health officials reported 179 new cases in Ottawa.

Case figures have differed between Ontario's report at 10:30 a.m. and Ottawa Public Health's report at 12:30 p.m. Ottawa Public Health says it uses a different database system than the Ontario provincial COVID-19 dashboards, which pull data at different times of day about Ottawa residents testing positive for COVID-19.

Ottawa Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard now shows 11,194 total lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city since the pandemic began. Ontario's daily report has a total of 11,189, just five cases lower than OPH's total.

No new deaths were reported in Ottawa on Saturday, leaving the pandemic death toll in the city at 395 residents.

The data for Ottawa Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard update on Saturday was pulled at 4 p.m. Friday, two hours later than the usual data pulling time of 2 p.m. daily. In an email to CTV News, an OPH spokesperson said the change to a daily data pulling at 4 p.m. going forward was made in an effort to reduce future discrepancies.

OPH said the extra two hours worth of data did not have a significant impact on the case count reported on Saturday.

OTTAWA'S COVID-19 KEY STATISTICS

A province-wide lockdown went into effect on Dec. 26, 2020. Ottawa Public Health moved Ottawa into its red zone this week.

Ottawa Public Health data:

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19

The number of people in Ottawa with known active cases of COVID-19 is at its highest rate ever since the start of the pandemic.

OPH is reporting 1,104 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, eclipsing yesterday's number of 977 and marking the first time that the number of active cases has been above 1,000.

OPH also reported 107 more resolved cases in Ottawa on Saturday, bringing the total number of resolved cases to 9,695 since the start of the pandemic.

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

The number of people in Ottawa hospitals with COVID-19 has risen by two to 26. Seven people remain in intensive care.

Of the people in hospital, one is between the ages of 10 and 19 (this person is in the ICU), two are in their 20s, two are in their 50s (one in the ICU), four are in their 60s (one in the ICU), nine are in their 70s (four in the ICU), six are in their 80s, and two are 90 or older.

CASES OF COVID-19 BY AGE CATEGORY

Here is a breakdown of all known COVID-19 cases in Ottawa by age category:

The ages of three people with COVID-19 remain unknown. Two people's ages have been confirmed and added to this list.

TESTING

Ontario health officials say 72,900 COVID-19 tests were completed across Ontario on Friday and 61,228 tests remain under investigation.

The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce does not provide updates on weekends. On Friday, the taskforce said local labs performed 6,219 COVID-19 tests on Jan. 7 and 1,472 swabs were taken at local assessment centres.

Ottawa's positivity rate for the week of Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, 2021 was 4.7 per cent.

The next update from the Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce will be released Monday, Jan. 11.

COVID-19 CASES AROUND THE REGION

INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS

Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 29 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.

Outbreaks at the Madonna Care Community long-term care home, the Villagia in the Glebe Retirement Residence, the Edgewood Care Centre, and the childcare centre at Charlotte Lemieux school have ended.

One new outbreak was declared at an independent living location.

There are eight ongoing community outbreaks.

Two involve restaurants, two involve retail locations, one involves an office workplace, one involves a services workplace, one is linked to a social event at a private setting and one is linked to sports and recreation.

The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, a single confirmed, symptomatic case in a staff member, home daycare provider, or child triggers an outbreak.

Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).