Ottawa in the ‘peak period’ for flu season

Ottawa is currently in the peak period of flu season, with high levels of influenza and RSV. CTV’s Tyler Fleming reports.

The City of Ottawa is currently in the peak period of flu season, with high levels of influenza and RSV circulating in the capital.

Interim Medical Officer of Health Dr. Trevor Arnason provided a checkup on the health of Ottawa during Monday’s Ottawa Board of Health meeting, warning viruses continue to circulate in the community.

“This year’s influenza season in Ottawa started in early January and we are currently in the peak period of influenza activity in what is proving to be a very busy flu season,” Arnason said.

Ottawa Public Health’s Respiratory Dashboard says wastewater surveillance shows “very high levels” of influenza and RSV circulating in Ottawa and it continues to increase. The health unit says the number of people hospitalized with the flu was higher last week than the week before.

“OPH continues to provide weekly snapshots of respiratory illness activity in Ottawa… to help the public make informed decisions about using their layers of protection, staying home when sick and staying up to date on their vaccines,” Arnason said.

The health unit says there’s still time to get your annual flu vaccine, adding, “It’s one of the best ways to prevent hospitalizations and complications.”

The positivity rate for influenza testing was 24 per cent in Ottawa last week, while the national positivity rate for influenza reached 21.2 per cent.

The federal government’s Health Infobase dashboard showed 8,586 detections of influenza for the week of Feb. 1.

As of the end of January, Ottawa Public Health had distributed over 156,000 flu shot vaccines to community health care providers. Ottawa’s pharmacies have received over 227,000 doses of the influenza vaccine from the Ministry of Health to administer to the public.

An Ottawa pharmacist says he’s been seeing “lots of viral illnesses” this season.

“We’re seeing still some people getting vaccinated at this time of year. Usually October, November, December are really busy vaccination times, some people that maybe missed out or didn’t think they were going to get a vaccine but are deciding to come in and get vaccinated now,” Jordan Clarke, owner of Shoppers Drug Mart in Westboro said.

“It’s not too late, flu season typically runs into April and it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to kick in to provide full immunity. So, if you were to get it now, you’re still going to have coverage for most of February, March and April as well.”

More than 8,000 RSV vaccines for infants have been distributed this flu season.

Arnason says 18 per cent of Ottawa’s population has received an update COVID-19 vaccine since the start of October.

With files from CTV News national digital producer Charlie Buckley and CTV News Ottawa’s Tyler Fleming