Ottawa COVID trends stable or rising coming out of the holidays

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's coronavirus wastewater average, COVID-19 outbreaks rising.
• Its COVID hospitalizations and test positivity are stable.
• 35% of residents age 12 and up have had a booster vaccine in the last 6 months.
• The Kingston area records its highest-ever average test positivity.

The latest guidance

Local officials are watching the city's respiratory illness trends after the holidays. The health-care system, particularly for children, has beenunder a lot of pressure because of COVID-19, flu andrespiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

• Mask up and get vaccinated because things willget worse in January, says Dr. Etches
• After months of overcrowding, Quebec ERs brace for the worst following holidays

Expertsstrongly recommendpeople wear masks indoorsand, in Ontario, in the daysafter having COVID symptoms.

Staying home when sick, keeping hands and surfaces cleanandkeeping up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccinesare also recommendedto help keep people safe, especially more vulnerable people including children.

CBC Ottawa takes a look at COVID trends on Tuesdays and Fridays. A broader look at respiratory illnesses comes on Wednesdays.

Wastewater

Data from the research teamsays the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, as of Dec. 28, had been rising since the last week of November.

It's back to where it was around the start of August 2022.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is 25, according to Tuesday's update, with twopatientsin intensive care.

Both numbers are stable.

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

That numberhas been dropping.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Ottawa's COVID-19 test positivity rate is stablearound 17per cent after a slow rise.Testing strategieschangedat the end of 2021andmanycasesaren't reflected incounts.

There are 38active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa, threemore than Friday. This count has been slowly rising.

OPH reported 165 more COVID cases over fourdays and the deathof someone in their 80swho had COVID.In all,986Ottawa residents who had COVID have died since the start of the pandemic.

Vaccines

Ottawa residents received about 2,850COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last week. That number is low compared to previous weeks, but it does cover major holidays.

Thirty-five per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most recentdose within the last six months, as is generally recommended,with older age groups having higher rates. This does not factor inimmunity from getting COVID.

As of the most recent weekly update, 93per cent of Ottawa residents aged five and up had at least one COVIDvaccine dose,90 per cent had at least two and 62 per cent at least three.

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

About 9,450residents younger than five have had a first dose, which isabout 21per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 4,900, or 11 per cent, have had two.

Across the region

Spread

The Kingston area's average test positivity climbs to 25 per cent, its highest level ever.

More than 22 per cent of the 429 COVID tests in the Belleville area last week came back positive its highest percentagein six months of data.

Coronavirus wastewater dataaverages outside Ottawaare out of date or unavailable coming out of the holidays.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa reportabout 40COVID-19 hospitalizations, with twoof these patients in intensive care. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit and Renfrew County's health unithaven't reported yet in 2023.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its hospitalizations have been low and stable since late November,

Western Quebec's health authority,CISSSO,reports 86COVIDhospitalizations. Noneof the patients are in intensive care.

LGL reported its 144th overall COVID death Tuesday, the Kingston area its 103rdand HPE, its 99th.

2022 wasby far the deadliest year for reported COVID fatalities in the wider Ottawa-Gatineau region, with nearly half ofits more than 2,000 reported COVID deaths coming that year.

Vaccines

Across eastern Ontario, between 82 and93 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.

Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health says that 33 per cent of its population age five and up have had a booster vaccine in the last six months. That number is 27 per cent in HPE.