Flu and RSV levels remain high in Ottawa as CHEO manages patient load

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 trends are generallystable.
• Its flu and RSV levels are high.
• Quebec recommends wearing masks in public.
• Eastern Ontario 16- and 17-year-olds are being sent to adult hospitals.

The latest guidance

Officials in Ontario and Quebec say the health-care system, particularly for children, is under extraordinary pressure because ofCOVID-19,earlyflu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)seasons, and a medication shortage.

• Quebec pediatric hospitals overrun, doctors label situation as 'historic crisis'
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Quebec's health ministerhas joined othersstrongly recommending people wear masks indoors. Staying home when sick, keeping hands and surfaces cleanand keeping up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines are also recommendedto help keep vulnerable people safe.

Eastern Ontario is now sending 16- and 17-year-olds to adult hospitals first. This happened in the past on a case-by-case basis.

• New child outpatient clinic opening in Gatineau

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) saidThursdaythat flu and RSV levels are high, but COVID levels aren't.

Ontario and Quebec flu test positivity isincreasing and RSV positivity has plateaued. There are some early positive signs in Ontariothat the pressure from sick children could be easing.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Testing strategieschangedunderthe Omicron variant, meaning manyCOVID-19 casesaren't reflected incounts. Public health officials now only trackand reportoutbreaksin health-care settings.

There are40 active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is moderate, according to OPH, and has been slowly dropping.

It reports one flu outbreak in a retirement home and 39 "other" respiratory outbreaks, nearly allin child-care settings, which is arising statistic.

Ottawa's COVID test positivity rate is 13 per cent. It had dropped since the end of October to a low of of 12 per cent Tuesday.

OPH reported 110 more COVID cases over threedaysand fivedeaths of people with COVID.A total of 961Ottawa residents who had COVID have died,351of them this year.

Wastewater

The weekly average level of coronavirusin Ottawa's wastewater is now moderate, according to OPH.

While the research team hasn't updated its page, OPH says as of Nov. 15 the average has been generally stable for five days after dropping for most of the month.

The research team alsoshares flu and RSVlevels in wastewater.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients drops to 12 in Friday's update. There is onepatientin intensive care, which is also a stable number.

The health unit cautions that changes it's making to its data system may affect thehospitalization count, which had a sharp drop around the start of the month.

For example, the hospitalization count was 29 on the main page of the dashboard updateon Nov. 8. The count under another tab, which is constantly updated as new paperwork comes in, had44 patients that day.

There is another count that includesotherpatients, such as peopleadmitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID-19, those admitted for lingering COVID-19 complications, and thosetransferred from other health units.

That number dropped Friday, going back to where it was in early October.

Vaccines

As of the most recent weekly update, 93per cent of Ottawa residents aged five and up had at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose,90 per cent had at least two and 61 per cent at least three.

Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at least four.

About 8,600residents younger than five have had a first dose, which isabout 19 per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,000, or six per cent, have had two.

Across the region

Spread

Wastewater trends arestableinKingston, low and stable in Cornwall and Hawkesbury and rising in Casselman.

Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.

The average COVID test positivity in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit rises to a high 19 per cent.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Western Quebec's health authority,CISSSO,reportsa stable 76COVIDhospitalizations. Oneof the patients isin intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa are reportingabout 60COVID hospitalizations, nineof themin intensive care. Abouthalf are in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health.

Renfrew County hasn't yet given its weekly update, which usually comes on Thursdays.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its count droppedbelow 20 Tuesday for the first time since August.

CISSSO reported three more COVID deaths in its weekly update, meaning 137 of its 360 deaths have been reported in 2022.

Each local health unit, except Ottawa, has had more reportedCOVID deaths in 2022 than either 2020 or 2021. Nationally,people dying of COVIDin the later months of 2022have generally been older, living with pre-existing conditions, orundergoing immune-suppressing treatments.

Vaccines

Across eastern Ontario, between 81 and92 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 53 and65 per cent of those residentshave hadat leastthree.

Local residents have now received more than six million vaccine doses combined.