Ottawa surged past the milestone of 5,000 COVID-19 cases on Thursday amid a record jump in new infections of the novel coronavirus.
Ottawa Public Health reported 183 new cases of the virus on Thursday, surpassing last week’s daily record of 142 new cases recorded on Oct. 2.
There have now been 5,153 cases of the virus in Ottawa since the start of the pandemic, with OPH marking 879 of those cases as active.
One new death related to COVID-19 was reported on Thursday, raising the city’s death toll amid the coronavirus pandemic to 296.
There are 32 people in hospital with COVID-19, according to OPH’s dashboard, with seven people in the Intensive Care Unit.
The record increase in new cases comes as Ottawa continues to work its way through a backlog of unprocessed tests.
The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce said the city’s testing backlog stood at 1,743 as of Tuesday.
Ontario also reported a record increase with 797 new COVID-19 cases amid an all-time high 48,500 tests processed across the province in the last 24 hours.
In the lead-up to Thanksgiving weekend, OPH shared a new case study Thursday morning, illustrating how one person with mild symptoms attending a local wedding in September resulted in 22 people testing positive and hundreds more self-isolating.
Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday urged Ontarians to only sit down for Thanksgiving dinner with the people in their own households. Those who live alone, he said, can pair up with only one other household. Ford said he recognizes it would be “very tough,” but a spike in COVID-19 cases following the August Civic Holiday shows the need to keep contacts low.
Dr. Brent Moloughney, Ottawa’s associate medical officer of health, said Thursday afternoon that OPH is hoping its latest case study will be a guide for residents’ behaviour over the long weekend.
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“We really don’t want to have another infographic showing you a Thanksgiving transmission,” he said during a call with reporters.
He noted that OPH has tracked spikes in new coronavirus cases two weeks after long weekends such as Canada Day, suggesting these gatherings are contributing to the spread.
Moloughney and Keith Egli, chair of the Ottawa Board of Health, also got out ahead of anyone planning parties for Halloween: in short, don’t.
While OPH hasn’t come down with a specific guidance for trick-or-treating this year, Halloween celebrations should, just like Thanksgiving, be kept within the household this year, they said.
Egli said he has been hearing from clubs, community organizations and constituents in his ward who are wondering if they’ll be able to plan larger-scale events for the end of the month.
But based on the current trajectory of cases and the need to reduce social contact to flatten the curve, Moloughney said Halloween parties must be done virtually this year.
Egli said they are communicating the message now, even before Thanksgiving, so as to avoid residents wasting their time planning events that shouldn’t go on.
Egli and Moloughney encouraged residents to get creative with their celebrations, like planning scavenger hunts in the home for kids or doing costume parties via videoconferencing.
OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard shows four more schools have declared coronavirus outbreaks.
Berrigan Public School, École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Marie, École secondaire publique Louis-Riel and École secondaire catholique Garneau are all now reported coronavirus outbreaks.
There are currently 65 ongoing outbreaks across Ottawa institutions such as long-term care homes, schools, daycares and workplaces.
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