A few key COVID-19 indicators are dropping in Ottawa as the city prepares to mark one year of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Ottawa Public Health reported 52 new cases of the virus on Wednesday, raising the total number of COVID-19 cases locally to 15,259.
Some key viral indicators in Ottawa that were approaching the threshold for the red-control zone on Ontario’s reopening framework appear to be reversing course.
The coronavirus incidence rate in Ottawa is now down to 35.6 cases per 100,000 people from 36.8 cases on Tuesday, moving the city further from the 40 infections per 100,000 that warrants a shift into the red.
The city’s coronavirus positivity rate is also down slightly to 2.1 per cent in the past week.
Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, said Wednesday she’s less concerned looking at coronavirus levels in the city’s wastewater system now than she was last week as the surging viral signal appears to have levelled off in recent days.
She also told reporters Wednesday that she’s glad to see the latest wastewater reports from March 9 did not detect trace amounts of COVID-19 variants of concern, while the March 2 report did.
The coronavirus pandemic officially hit the nation’s capital on March 11, 2020, with the first confirmed case of the virus. The city will fly flags at half mast in mourning of those lost in the pandemic on Thursday to mark the grim anniversary.
An additional two people have died in connection with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, OPH said, raising the city’s death toll of the pandemic to 446.
There are currently 25 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Ottawa, four of whom are in the intensive care unit.
Two coronavirus outbreaks were recently declared at École secondaire catholique Paul-Desmarais and Steve MacLean Public School, both reporting one student and one teacher testing positive. There are now 31 ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa.
Ottawa Public Health reports the city has so far administered nearly 70,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine out of a total inventory of just over 80,000 doses received to date.
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