Ottawa receives fresh batch of COVID-19 vaccines as some coronavirus metrics tick up

A number of COVID-19 monitoring indicators in Ottawa are higher as of Friday than they were a week ago, according to the local public health unit, which also provided an update on the city’s coronavirus vaccination campaign.

Ottawa Public Health reported an increase of 65 new coronavirus cases on Friday.

There have now been 14,216 total cases of the virus locally since the start of the pandemic, with 439 of those cases considered active. That’s up from 417 active cases a week ago, though figures have generally floated around that mark all week.

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in Ottawa is now back above 50, up from an average 45 cases a week ago.

No new deaths related to COVID-19 were added to OPH’s figures on Friday.

The coronavirus positivity rate in the city stood at 1.8 per cent as of Friday, up from 1.6 per cent last week.

The number of contacts per confirmed COVID-19 case is up to 5.8 for the week of Feb. 8 to 14, according to OPH’s dashboard — that number had been below three in recent weeks during the lockdown.

There are 21 people currently in hospital with COVID-19 in Ottawa, three more than on Thursday, with four now in the intensive care unit.

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Three new coronavirus outbreaks were also added to OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard on Friday, raising the number of ongoing outbreaks in the city to 31.

Three of Ottawa’s four city-run long-term care homes — Peter D. Clark, Garry J. Armstrong and Centre d’accueil Champlain — are all facing outbreaks, according to a memo sent to city council on Thursday night.

Ottawa has also recently received a fresh batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, according to OPH data. A shipment of 9,360 doses — the second-largest single batch Ottawa has received thus far in the pandemic — came into the city on Wednesday.

Ottawa has so far administered 41,695 vaccine doses, with a stated inventory of 48,460 received to date.

OPH says 60 per cent of residents in retirement homes have now received their first dose of the vaccine, with one per cent having already gotten a second dose.