Focus shifts to flu levels in Ottawa as December arrives

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's flu level is very high in wastewater, while COVID-19and RSVare moderate.
• City's otherCOVIDtrends are mostly stable.
• The load onCHEO's emergency roomhas lessened.

The latest guidance

Local officialssay the health-care system, particularly for children, is under a lot of pressure because ofa flu season that is worse and started earlier, plus the continued challenges ofCOVID-19 andrespiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

• Quebec needs more nurses to answer flood of telehealth calls
• Free rapid COVID-19 testsavailable at Ontario stores through end ofJune 2023

Ottawa's weekly respiratory snapshot Thursday said flu levels in wastewater are very high. COVID andRSV levels are moderate. All in all, there is a high level of respiratory viruses circulating in the city, it said.

The CEO of CHEO, eastern Ontario's children's hospital in Ottawa,said Thursday very young children are getting very sick and procedures are being delayed, but the still-unprecedented load on its emergency department is better than it was two weeks ago.

Expertsstrongly recommendpeople 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 people safe, especially more vulnerable people including children.

Wastewater

Data from researchers says the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, as of Nov. 29,dropped for most ofNovemberand has more recently been stable for about a week.

That same wastewater research team says flu levels are rising and RSV levels are stable.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is a stable 17, according toFriday's update, with fourpatientsin intensive care.

The health unit says the number of COVID hospital admissions is moderate.

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 number remains generally stable.

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.

Ottawa's COVID test positivity rate drops to about nine per cent, which OPH nowconsiders moderate. As recently as one month ago, it was very high.

There are 19active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is now low, according to OPH, and the number has beendropping.

The health unit also reports twoflu outbreaks, while the number of "other" respiratory illnessoutbreaks nearly allin child-care settings are stable at 43. Sixof theseoutbreaks in schools have more than 100 cases, though, with the most at 175 cases.

OPH reported 154 more COVID cases over threedays and the deaths of twopeople age 80 and abovewith COVID.In all,970Ottawa residents who had COVID have died since the start of the pandemic, including360of them this year.

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

About 9,000residents younger than five have had a first dose, which isabout 20per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,750, or eightper cent, have had two.

Across the region

Spread

Wastewater trends are stableinKingston, Cornwall and Morrisburgand rising in Hawkesbury.Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.

COVID test positivity in Renfrew County rises back up to around 14 per cent. It's around 10 per cent in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).

The EOHU's Dr.Paul Roumeliotis said in his weekly update that general COVID trends are slowly dropping.

WATCH | The medical officer of health's update:

Hospitalizations and deaths

Western Quebec's health authority,CISSSO,reporteda rise to 93COVID-19hospitalizations. Oneof the patients is in intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa report a drop to about 35COVID hospitalizations. Theirsixintensive care COVID patients are all in the Kingston area.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its count droppedto twoTuesday for the first time since July.

Two more western Quebec residents with COVID died in the past week, bringing the toll to 363. Renfrew Country's health unit reported its 68th such death of the year and 81st overall. The EOHU had its 273rd COVID death.

This is by far the deadliest year for reported COVID-19 deaths in the wider Ottawa-Gatineau region, with nearly half ofits more than 2,000 reported COVID deaths coming in 2022.

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.