COVID-19 trends slide further from early winter peak | CBC News

Recent developments:

• Ottawa’s COVID-19 trends are stable or falling.
• Test positivity, wastewater has recovered from early winter peak.
• Four more local residents with COVID have died.

The last

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) says recent downward trends are encouraging, but the city’s level of respiratory viruses remains high overall and risks are still worth reducing.

Experts strongly recommend that people wear masks indoors and, in Ontario, in the days following COVID symptoms. Staying home when you are sick and staying up-to-date on flu and COVID vaccinations also helps protect vulnerable people.

CBC Ottawa takes a look at COVID trends on Tuesdays and Fridays. A broader look at respiratory illnesses is offered on Wednesdays: overall, respiratory virus activity was noted to have decreased.

sewage water

Data from the research team says the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa’s wastewater, as of January 19, had decreased seven of the past eight days.

Levels are back to where they were before peaking around the new year.

hospitals

OPH’s count of active local hospital patients with COVID-19 is holding steady at 32, according to Tuesday’s update, with three patients in intensive care. Those numbers have been at a similar level for more than a month.

There is another count that includes other patients, such as those admitted for other reasons who later test positive for COVID, those admitted for persistent COVID complications, and those transferred from other health units.

That number has been generally stable this month. He hit 100 for the first time in about five weeks.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Ottawa’s COVID-19 test positivity rate is holding steady at around 15 percent. OPH considers this high. Testing strategies changed at the end of 2021 and many cases are not reflected in the counts.

There are 27 active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa, according to OPH. That number has been slowly falling this month.

OPH reported 139 more cases of COVID over four days and the death of a person 90 years or older with COVID. In total, 1,004 Ottawa residents with COVID have died since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccines

Using the province’s updated population figures for 2023, 32% of Ottawans 12 years and older have received their most recent dose in the past six months, as generally recommended, with older age groups having higher rates.

This does not take into account immunity from contracting COVID.

As of the most recent weekly update, 85% of Ottawa residents had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, 82% had at least two, 56% at least three, and 31% at least four.

About 9,700 residents under the age of five have received a first dose, representing about 21 percent of Ottawa’s population in that age group. About 5,400, or 12 percent, have had two.

About 2,800 doses of vaccines were administered in the last week, which is less than each of the previous two weeks.

throughout the region

Spread

The Kingston-area coronavirus wastewater average is stable, with recent signs of increasing. At all three sites in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, it is generally stable and is the same trend at Casselman.

Data for other areas outside of Ottawa is out of date or unavailable.

Average COVID test positivity falls to 14 percent in the Belleville area. It rises to 14 percent in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).

The EOHU’s COVID risk level is considered low.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Eastern Ontario communities outside of Ottawa are reporting 35 hospitalizations for COVID-19, with three patients in intensive care.

That regional count does not include the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Department (HPE), which has a different counting method. It has 12 stable local hospitalizations for COVID.

The western Quebec health authority, CISSSO, reports 101 hospitalizations for COVID. That’s been around that number since December. One of the patients is in intensive care.

HPE reported two more deaths from COVID. A total of 103 of these deaths are now reported.

Vaccines

The Kingston area health unit says 33 percent of its population five years and older have received a booster shot in the past six months. That number is 27 percent at HPE and not available anywhere else.

In eastern Ontario, 82 to 93 percent of residents five years and older received at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 53 to 66 percent of those residents received at least three .