Ottawa sets new COVID-19 case record on Christmas Eve

Outdoor restrictions coming to Ottawa Ottawa residents say they’re in favour of new outdoor restrictions. CTV’s Jeremie Charron reports.

The city of Ottawa is seeing a third straight day with record COVID-19 case numbers as families prepare to celebrate Christmas in-person and virtually.

Ottawa Public Health reported 698 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, smashing the previous record of 466 cases on Thursday.

Wednesday’s case count of 387 was also a record.

Public health says 523 of the 698 new cases in Ottawa on Christmas Eve involve residents under the age of 40.

Since the first case of COVID-19 in Ottawa in March 2020, there have been 36,484 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 620 deaths.

Ottawa's COVID-19 Testing Taskforce says testing capacity in Ottawa and across Ontario is "under strain", and timely access may not be available to everyone with COVID-19 symptoms. Walk-in testing has been paused at Ottawa's clinics to keep testing capacity available for essential workers.

Across Ontario, there are 9,571 new cases of COVID-19, surpassing Thursday's record-breaking total of 5,790 cases.  Health officials reported 2,456 cases in Toronto and 1,113 cases in Peel Region.

Ontario's rolling seven-day average has soared to 4,922, up from 1,914 at this point last week.

Ottawa Public Health says it will not provide a COVID-19 update on cases in Ottawa on Christmas Day and Dec. 26.

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.

VACCINATED VS. UNVACCINATED CASE NUMBERS

(n.b. The rate per 100,000 population is used to compare the total populations of unvaccinated individuals, partially vaccinated, and fully vaccinated individuals against each other, as their respective populations are different. There are more fully vaccinated people in Ontario than there are unvaccinated people in Ontario, so a calculation dividing new cases by the respective populations and then multiplying that figure by 100,000 is used as a comparative measure. Rates per 100,000 are published daily by the Ontario government.)

COVID-19 VACCINES IN OTTAWA

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

As of Friday:

*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 3,355 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Friday, up from 2,783 active cases on Thursday and 2,435 cases on Wednesday.

Ottawa Public Health reported 126 newly resolved cases of COVID-19. The total number of resolved cases of coronavirus in Ottawa is 32,509.

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 eight people in Ottawa-area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses on Friday, up from seven on Thursday.

There have been no patients in Ottawa's ICUs since Dec. 10.

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

*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 Taskforce says 3,240 swabs were processed at assessment centres on Wednesday. A total of 4,967 lab tests were performed on Dec. 22.

The average turnaround from the time a swab is taken at a testing site to the result is 29 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.

Community outbreaks:

Schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks: 

Healthcare and congregate settings experiencing outbreaks: