For the 1st time in weeks, COVID trends aren't rising in Ottawa

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 trends are stable or dropping.
• CHEO's chief of staff wants more people to wear masks to protect kids.
• More of Ottawa'syoungest residents are vaccinated compared to national average.
• Elevenlocal COVID deaths werereported since Friday.

The latest guidance

Ottawa's medical officer of health is urging people to protect themselves and others ahead of what's likely going to be a challenging winter for the city's well-being.

Vaccines are the best protection against the flu and COVID-19, said Dr. Vera Etches last week, whileasking people to stay home when sick andwear masks in indoor and crowded areas. She again recommends keeping hands and surfaces clean during what she's calling an "extraordinary respiratory [illness] season."

The chief of staff at CHEO spoke to Ottawa'sboard of healthMonday about the influx of patients at her pediatric hospital, and asked the public to resume masking to protect children. It's having to send kids to other hospitals for care, said Dr. Lindy Samson.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) saidin its weekly Thursday check-inthat COVID-19 levels remain high. For the first time since late summer, though, the key numbers below aren't rising.

Wastewater

The weekly average level of coronavirusin Ottawa's wastewater is high.It's been stable for about 10 days.

As of Nov. 6, the average is about 10 times higher thanthis time last year.

Tests, outbreaks and cases

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

Ottawa's test positivity rate has been seen asvery high for weeks, according toOPH. It's currently around 15per cent after beingat or above20 per centfor about two weeks.

There are currently 50active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This is moderate, according to OPH, and very slowly dropping this month.

OPH reported 178 more cases overfour daysand sevendeaths of people with COVID, all age 70 and above.A total of 940Ottawa residents who had COVID have died,330of them this year.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients rose to 29 in Tuesday's update after a significant drop at the start of November.

There are three patients in intensive care, which remainsstable.

When you look at its other 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, the number is stable.

Vaccines

Ottawa residents received about 11,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last week, mostly fourth doses. This is down slightly from the previous week, butsimilar to the weeks before that.

Residents have now received more than 2.7 million doses total.

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

About 8,500residents younger than five have had a first dose, which isabout 18 per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 2,700, or six per cent, have had two. This is better than the national average.

Across the region

Spread

Wastewater trends areslowly risingin the Kingston area,and low and stable in Casselman and Hawkesbury. They're high and stable in Brockville and Smiths Falls, and dropping in Kemptville.

Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.

COVID-19 test positivity in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and Kingston areais a high, stable 14 per cent.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Western Quebec's health authority,CISSSO,reportsa slight drop to 92COVIDhospitalizations. Noneof the patients are in intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa are reportingabout 65COVID hospitalizations, 11of themin intensive care. About half are in the Kingston area, which is near its COVID hospitalization record of 35 patients.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. It reported a stable 23 COVID hospitalizations in its weekly update.

HPEreported twomore COVIDdeaths in its weekly update for a total of 94.Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties reported one more, bringing its overall COVID death toll to 135.

Everywhere but Ottawa has had more reportedCOVID deaths in 2022 than either 2020 or 2021. Nationally,the 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 vaccine doses, and between 53 and65 per cent of those residentshave hadat leastthree.

The Kingston area also has more children under five vaccinated compared to the national average, with 14 per cent having at least one dose and five per cent having two.

• Fewer than 7% of Canadian kids 5 and younger have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine

The Belleville area is around that average of seven per cent having a single dose and one per cent having two.

Vaccine data for children under fiveisn't available for all local health authorities.