Ottawa added 117 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the second-highest single-day spike of the novel coronavirus pandemic for the nation’s capital.
Ottawa Public Health (OPH) reports there have now been 4,970 cases of the virus in the city since the start of the pandemic.
There are 810 active COVID-19 cases in Ottawa, according to OPH’s dashboard, five more than the day before.
There are 28 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Ottawa, six of whom are in the intensive care unit.
No new deaths related to the virus were reported on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s increase is surpassed only by the 142 new cases reported last Friday, the same day Ottawa’s medical officer of health declared that the city’s health-care system was in “crisis.”
Eight new coronavirus outbreaks were reported in Ottawa institutions such as long-term care homes and schools, raising the total number of ongoing outbreaks to 61.
The coronavirus outbreak at Assumption School in Vanier was declared over as of Tuesday with just two students testing positive for the virus, OPH’s dashboard shows.
Wednesday’s report includes new outbreaks at Carlingview Manor and Madonna Care Community, the third and fourth coronavirus outbreaks at the respective long-term care homes.
The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce said Wednesday afternoon that 2,204 swabs were taken on Tuesday, with 3,208 tests processed in labs the same day. As a result, the local backlog of unprocessed tests sat at 1,743 as of Tuesday.
High-priority tests are being turned around in an average of 24 hours, the task force said in its daily update.