RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:
Flu numbers largely dropped over the last week in Ottawa, according to the latest data from Ottawa Public Health (OPH). They’re still mostly high, with some very high wastewater readings and hospitalization figures.
Rates of COVID-19 and RSV remain high. The RSV scenario is robust and COVID trends are moving in different directions, with some symptoms that its spread is slowing.
Experts suggest that people cough, wear masks, keep their hands and touching surfaces clean; Stay home if you have health problems and get a COVID and flu shot to help protect yourself and other vulnerable people.
OPH says the city’s health care facilities remain at the highest risk for respiratory illness, as has been the case for 20 weeks since late August.
This is expected to be the case at least until March.
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Ottawa reached its 2023 coronavirus wastewater average on New Year’s Eve. Since then, it has declined considerably.
As of Saturday, OPH still assessed this average as very high. However, as of Tuesday, it had fallen to what OPH described as the last time it happened in this community in August.
The average positivity rate of weekly checks in the city drops to about thirteen percent, which OPH still considers high.
Hospitalizations, outbreaks and deaths
Over the past week, the average number of Ottawa citizens in hospitals for COVID-19 has remained stable at 44.
A separate, wider count — which includes patients who tested positive for COVID after being admitted for other reasons, were admitted for lingering COVID complications or were transferred from other health units — has risen a bit after a fall.
OPH considers the number of new COVID-related hospitalizations in the city to be high (53).
The active COVID outbreak count is stable at 25, mostly in long-term care or retirement homes. There is a high number of new outbreaks.
The health unit reported 216 more COVID cases and five more COVID deaths in the last week.
Twenty-two per cent of Ottawa citizens have received the COVID vaccine since the last edition launched in mid-September, up from 21 per cent two weeks ago. These figures do not take into account immunity against a recent infection.
The Kingston Region Health Unit says we are also in the midst of an era of maximum threat for respiratory illnesses. The toll of flu and COVID in the region is stable, with trends ranging from low to very high. The RSV strain is declining somewhat in the region.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) Global Assessment assesses overall respiration as moderate to high.
The Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Department of Public Health, like Ottawa, provides a weekly average of COVID cases in hospitals. That number fell from 39 to 27, the highest average since fall 2022.
Renfrew County’s hospitalizations are stable at six, and test positivity stable at 24 per cent.
Western Quebec drops again to 54 hospital patients who have tested positive for COVID, its lowest count since early October 2023. The province reported five more COVID deaths there.
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties reported six more local COVID deaths and HPE reported one. Renfrew County reported five more deaths over the past two weeks
LGL’s awareness dates back to January 7, when its trends were high.
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