Ottawa sees highest daily COVID-19 case count since late September

Ontario COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations to rise CTV's Katie Griffin reports on the new COVID-19 modelling data in Ontario, and the decision to pause the reopening plan.

Ottawa Public Health is reporting 74 more people in the city have tested positive for COVID-19, the highest daily snapshot of new cases since late September.

OPH reported 79 new cases in its daily snapshot report on Sept. 26.

To date, OPH has recorded 32,475 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa residents. No new deaths were reported for an 11th straight day, keeping the city's pandemic death toll at 618 residents.

The rolling seven-day average for the city is 58.7, up from 44.0 one week ago and 39.4 four weeks ago.

The number of confirmed active cases continues to rise. There is one fewer active COVID-19 case in Ottawa hospitals, and the number of overall COVID-19 patients remains low.

Across the province, officials confirmed another 1,009 new cases of COVID-19. Eight more Ontarians have died due to COVID-19 and 1,192 previously reported cases are now considered resolved.

Ontario’s rolling seven-day average now stands at 1,007, up from 821 at this point last week.

Public Health Ontario added 92 cases to its total count for Ottawa on Wednesday. Figures from OPH often differ from Public Health Ontario's because of data lag and differences in the time of day that the health units' respective daily snapshot reports are compiled. As of Wednesday, Public Health Ontario's total case count for the city is 24 cases behind Ottawa Public Health's total.

OTTAWA'S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS

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 1,009 newly reported infections reported in Ontario on Tuesday, 421 were in people who are not vaccinated, for a rate of 13.53 cases per 100,000 population and 502 were in fully vaccinated individuals, for a rate of 4.47 cases per 100,000 population. Twenty-two cases were in people who are only partially vaccinated (5.72 per 100,000 population) and the vaccination status of the remaining 64 people with new cases is unknown.

More than 11.3 million Ontarians are fully vaccinated.

There are at least 333 people in hospital due to COVID-19. Of those, 196 people were reported to have been admitted in the last 24 hours — 99 of which were unvaccinated, 22 were partially vaccinated and 75 were fully vaccinated.

The province says 155 patients are in intensive care due to COVID-19, with 108 were admitted in the past 24 hours – 69 of whom are unvaccinated, while 24 are fully vaccinated. The remaining 15 patients’ vaccination status is unknown.

Locally, Ottawa Public Health is reporting a five-week rate of 263.9 COVID-19 cases for every 100,000 unvaccinated people in the city compared to 86.5 cases for every 100,000 fully vaccinated people during the period of Oct. 30 to Dec. 3.

More than 816,000 residents of Ottawa are considered fully vaccinated as of Dec. 8.

COVID-19 VACCINES IN OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health has updated its vaccination numbers to include children between ages five and 11, who are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

The healh unit releases vaccine numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

As of Wednesday:

*Statistics on Ottawa residents with one or two doses include anyone with an Ottawa postal code who was vaccinated anywhere in Ontario.

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA

There are 475 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Wednesday, up from 448 on Tuesday.

Ottawa Public Health reported 47 more newly resolved cases of COVID-19. The total number of resolved cases of coronavirus in Ottawa is 31,382.

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 six people in Ottawa area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses on Wednesday, down from seven on Tuesday. That includes two people in the ICU.

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 has added the new Omicron variant to its list of variants of concern.

*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.

COVID-19 TESTING IN OTTAWA

The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Task Force says 1,220 swabs were processed at assessment centres on Monday and labs performed 2,249 tests.

The average turnaround from the time a swab is taken at a testing site to the result is 20 hours.

CASES OF COVID-19 AROUND THE REGION

COVID-19 OUTBREAKS

Ottawa Public Health reports COVID-19 outbreaks at institutions and community outbreaks in Ottawa. There are five ongoing outbreaks in health care institutions and 19 in child care and school settings.

Community outbreaks:

Schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks: 

Healthcare and congregate settings experiencing outbreaks: