Ottawa's COVID-19 trends stable, but vaccination rate hits new low
Recent developments:
Ottawa's COVID-19 trends remain generally stable.
Last week saw the fewest vaccinations since the campaign began.
Five more people with COVID have died in the region.
The latest
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has said downward respiratory virus trends are encouraging but it's still worthwhile to reduce risks as COVID-19 levels remain high.
Experts strongly recommend people wear masks indoors and, in Ontario, in the days after having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sick and being up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines also help protect vulnerable people.
Non-COVID respiratory virus levels are generally low.
Wastewater
Data from the research team shows that as of Feb. 5, the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater has been stable for more than two weeks at a level generally higher than the autumn of 2022.
OPH considers this level to be very high.
Hospitals
OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients rises to 33. That number has hovered around 30 so far this year.
Four of those patients are in intensive care.
There is another count that includes other patients, such as people admitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID, those admitted for lingering COVID complications, and those transferred from other health units.
That count spent January around the 80s and 90s, dropping into the 70s with this latest update.
Tests, outbreaks and deaths
Ottawa's COVID-19 test positivity rate remains around 11 per cent, which OPH says is moderate.
Ottawa has 16 active COVID outbreaks, a level that appears to be stabilizing after dropping steadily.
OPH has reported 112 more COVID cases since Friday and three deaths of people with COVID, all age 80 or above. In all, 1,015 Ottawa residents who've died since the start of the pandemic had COVID as a contributing or underlying factor.
Vaccines
Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most recent COVID vaccine dose within the last six months, as is generally recommended, with older age groups having higher rates.
This does not factor in immunity from getting COVID.
As of the most recent weekly update, 85 per cent of Ottawa residents had at least one COVID vaccine dose, 82 per cent had at least two, 56 per cent at least three and 31 per cent at least four.
The 1,266 COVID vaccine doses administered in Ottawa last week represent the lowest weekly total since Canada's vaccination campaign began in December 2020. The campaign's first week saw more than 1,400 doses given in the capital.
Across the region
Spread
Coronavirus wastewater averages are stable across Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties, in Cornwall and Casselman and in the Kingston area.
Data for other areas outside Ottawa is out of date or unavailable.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit's COVID risk level is considered low, while its test positivity is stable at around 11 per cent. The Kingston area's test positivity is a stable 16 per cent.
Hospitalizations and deaths
Eastern Ontario communities outside Ottawa report about 25 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with four patients in intensive care.
That regional count doesn't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has a different counting method. Its local hospitalization count has been low and stable.
LGL reported one more COVID death in the previous week, bringing its total to 149. One more reported death in the Kingston area means a total of 109 people with COVID have died there.
Western Quebec's health authority hasn't updated its numbers since Jan. 25.
Vaccines
The Kingston area's health unit says that 32 per cent of its population age five and up have had a vaccine in the last six months. That number is 27 per cent in HPE and unavailable elsewhere.
Across eastern Ontario, between 79 and 90 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 52 and 65 per cent of those residents have had at least three.
