Ottawa’s coronavirus positivity rate is back up to highs seen at the start of 2021 as data from the city’s wastewater system shows COVID-19 levels could be dropping.
Ottawa Public Health reported 80 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday but no new deaths related to the virus.
The city’s percent positivity, meanwhile, rose to 4.2 per cent in the past week. Ottawa’s coronavirus positivity rate hasn’t been this high since January.
While the city’s COVID-19 case counts have continued to rise since entering the red zone on Ontario’s reopening framework, the level of viral signal detected in Ottawa’s wastewater system appears to be declining.
Data extracted from Ottawa’s sewage system can act as an early indicator of which direction the city’s coronavirus levels will trend in the near future.
Researchers have also detected the presence of the B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 in the city’s wastewater system as recently as March 18.
Public Health Ontario’s daily epidemiological reports show Ottawa has so far confirmed 21 cases of the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in the United Kingdom and two cases of the B.1.351 variant discovered in South Africa. A total of 343 tests have screened positively as a likely variant of concern in Ottawa as of Wednesday.
Other key COVID-19 metrics have remained relatively steady in recent days.
Ottawa’s seven-day average of new coronavirus cases remained at 83 as of Wednesday.
The city’s incidence rate also held steady at 55 cases per 100,000 people.
Active COVID-19 cases are down slightly to 747 on Wednesday.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 in Ottawa is up, however, to 27. Six of those patients are now in the intensive care unit.
One new coronavirus outbreak was declared in Ottawa at a supported independent living facility where one resident and one staff member have each tested positive for the virus. There are currently 41 ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa.
Officials said Wednesday afternoon that the nation’s capital has administered roughly 106,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to date.
The city received its largest single shipment of vaccines with a delivery of 36,270 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday, according to OPH’s dashboard. Ottawa has thus far received 133,440 doses between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Mayor Jim Watson said Wednesday he is urging provincial officials to include Ottawa in the expansion of Ontario’s pilot program to distribute the vaccine via pharmacies.