COVID-19: 31% of Ottawa adults now fully vaccinated after record-setting week

Ottawa Public Health says a record week for COVID-19 vaccine shots has pushed the city to a 31 per cent vaccination rate among those aged 18 and older, as overall coronavirus case figures in the nation’s capital continue to decline.

OPH’s COVID-19 vaccination dashboard shows that Ottawa administered a record 127,507 vaccine doses last week, topping previous highs of just over 90,000 doses per week. Friday represented a single-day high for shots with 21,282 doses administered.

A recent surge in supply of vaccines and the opening of five new community clinics in the city helped push the city’s immunization campaign to new heights.

OPH says 267,759 adults aged 18 and older are now vaccinated with two doses. One in four Ottawa residents, age inclusive, are now fully vaccinated.

Two-dose protection is high among those aged 70 and older, with more than half of residents in these age bands now fully vaccinated. Some 49 per cent of those in the 40-49 age cohort are also vaccinated with two doses.

Vaccination momentum is unlikely to slow as July approaches. The city added additional appointments to the provincial vaccine booking system Monday morning as Ontario opened up accelerated second-dose bookings to all adults aged 18 and older.

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This comes as OPH continues to report dwindling daily COVID-19 case counts.

OPH added 11 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, following single-digit increases on both Saturday and Sunday.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in Ottawa dropped just below 100 to sit at 99 as of Monday, a low not seen since July 2020.

Ottawa’s weekly incidence rate now stands at 7.3 per 100,000 people and the local coronavirus positivity rate dropped to 0.9 per cent over the weekend.

The caveat to these metrics is relatively low testing volumes at Ottawa assessment centres. Local health officials have cautioned that daily case reports are likely an underestimate of active viral levels as the city’s wastewater system shows higher amounts of COVID-19 than are likely reflected in lab-confirmed case counts.

Additionally, OPH is reporting 19 cases of the Delta variant, first identified in India, since the more transmissible strain was initially detected in Ottawa. That’s up from 14 such cases on Friday.

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The number of Ottawa residents in hospital with COVID-19 stands at seven as of Monday, with one person in the intensive care unit.

There are seven ongoing outbreaks in the city as well.