Numerous COVID-19 metrics in Ottawa are trending in the right direction, local medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said Wednesday, though it’s too early to declare victory in the city’s latest coronavirus surge.
Ottawa Public Health reported 67 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday and two additional deaths related to COVID-19.
There have now been 12,494 cases of the virus locally and 409 deaths in the pandemic.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in Ottawa dropped to 1,057 as of Wednesday.
The seven-day average of new coronavirus cases dropped to 110 per day, according to OPH’s dashboard.
Other indicators are also trending in the right direction, Etches told reporters on Wednesday, as monitoring data begins to reflect the provincewide lockdown measures that went into effect at the end of 2020.
The community’s positivity rate has dropped to 3.5 per cent in the past week from four per cent in the previous period, there are fewer close contacts on average per lab-confirmed case of COVID-19 and the level of viral signal in the city’s wastewater system has stopped increasing over the past few weeks.
While she called these trends “encouraging indicators,” she cautioned that Ottawa remained in the red zone of Ontario’s COVID-19 reopening framework.
She urged residents to “maintain behaviours that are working,” namely staying home, interacting with people only within your household, staying two metres apart on trips outside the house and wearing a mask when physical distancing is not possible.
“This virus can always increase rapidly if we give it a chance.”
Other measures in Ottawa’s efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve remain worrying.
There are currently 42 people in hospital with COVID-19 locally, two more than the day previous, with eight in the intensive care unit.
OPH also added three new coronavirus outbreaks to its dashboard on Friday, raising the number of ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa to 44. Etches said the number of outbreaks will continue to grow as long as community transmission of the virus exists in Ottawa.
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Etches said, however, that the city’s progress in lowering local levels of the virus give her confidence that Ottawa students could return to in-person schooling on Monday. But the Ontario government’s decision later in the day will keep Ottawa schools restricted to remote learning into February.
Etches also noted the results from OPH’s latest mental health survey of residents amid the pandemic, now 10 months in.
Results show residents continue to report worsening mental health, signs of burnout and lower community connectedness, she said.
Etches urged residents to “keep tabs” on their mental health during the winter months and highlighted resources available via OPH for anyone struggling.
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