Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today

• Ottawa’s pandemic trends are stable or dropping.
• Its residents have had about 20,000 vaccine doses in the last two weeks.
• Five local COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday.

Today’s Ottawa update

Wastewater

The level of coronavirus detected in Ottawa’s wastewater has been very slowly dropping for nearly a week.

The most recent data available (the bold red line in the graph below) shows the seven-day average calculated on May 26 remained about twice what it was in early March, before the current spike.

It’s about six times higher than in late autumn before Omicron hit.

Hospitals

Fourteen Ottawa residents are in local hospitals to be treated for COVID-19, according to Monday’s OPH update. Two of the patients are in intensive care.

Both numbers dropped for about two weeks starting at the end of April, then have been stable for about two weeks.

The hospitalization figures above don’t include all patients. For example, they leave out patients admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID-19, those admitted for lingering COVID-19 complications, and those transferred from other health units.

When those categories are included, there were 60 patients on Saturday. That’s fewer than the previous couple of updates.

Tests, outbreaks and cases

Testing strategies have changed under the contagious Omicron variant, which means many COVID-19 cases aren’t reflected in current counts. Public health only tracks and reports outbreaks that occur in health-care settings.

At about seven per cent, Ottawa’s average positivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes is stable. The average inside the homes is five per cent, which is slowly dropping.

Ottawa has 19 active COVID outbreaks Monday. That number has been very slowly dropping.

On Monday, OPH reported 113 more cases over three days and three more deaths. That brings the city’s COVID death toll to 26 people this month and 807 people overall.

The rolling weekly incidence rate of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 residents, is around 25.

Vaccines

916,961: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, about 400 more than the last OPH update two weeks ago. That’s still 92 per cent of the eligible population.

881,483: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with a second dose, about 650 since the last update. That’s still 89 per cent of the eligible population.

577,660: The number of Ottawans age 12 and up with a third dose, about 400 since the last update. That’s still 63 per cent of these residents; younger children only qualify with certain health conditions.

Ten per cent of residents age 12 and up have a fourth dose, or about 91,600 people. That’s more than 17,000 fourth doses since the last update.

Across the region

Wastewater levels in the Kingston area and Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties are stable or dropping.

Measurements elsewhere are at least a week old or not publicly available.

Western Quebec has about 50 COVID hospitalizations, including patients who are no longer considered active cases. That’s a slight from from the number last week. One of those patients requires intensive care.

The health authority for the Outaouais reported its 315th COVID-19 death overall Monday, its 11th reported this month.

Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa are reporting about 35 COVID-19 hospitalizations, including about five in intensive care. Both numbers are stable.

Neither of those eastern Ontario numbers include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health which, like western Quebec, has a different counting method.

LGL reported its 107th COVID death Monday. Its COVID hospitalizations have been stable between five and nine this month.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit lists six local active COVID hospitalizations, which is around where that number has been for two weeks.

Vaccines

About 5.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered to people in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

Quebec considers about 78 per cent of Outaouais residents to be “adequately vaccinated,” which can be a combination of vaccination and recent infection.

For each of the eastern Ontario health units, there are anywhere from 81 to 92 per cent of eligible residents with at least two vaccine doses, and anywhere from 59 to 71 per cent of adults with three doses.