The number of active COVID-19 cases and people in hospital with the virus in Ottawa continues to drop this week, even as new outbreaks spread through the city’s schools.
Ottawa Public Health reported 29 new COVID-19 cases Thursday as the number of active cases in the city fell to 339.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 also fell to seven, down from nine the day before, with three patients still in the intensive care unit locally.
No new deaths related to the virus were reported on Thursday.
Four new outbreaks were added to OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard in the latest report, three of which affect local schools.
Dr. F. J. McDonald Catholic School, Vincent Massey Public School and École Élémentaire Publique L’Odyssée are all listed as new outbreaks locally, raising the number of ongoing outbreaks at Ottawa schools to 12.
Three schools have been closed so far due to outbreaks.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health announced earlier this week that the province would distribute rapid antigen tests to local health units as an extra screening measure for COVID-19 in schools.
Local medical officers of health will have the discretion for how and where those tests are deployed.
Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, said in a statement Wednesday that OPH is still awaiting details from the province on the rapid testing program.
She said that rapid tests are an additional tool to help trace the spread of the virus in schools but they do not replace PCR tests needed to confirm whether a high-risk contact of a positive case has contracted the virus.
OPH and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario have already been piloting a program of take-home PCR tests for parents, the first municipality in the province to do so, Etches said. The tests are available for pick-up at the CHEO assessment centre at Brewer Arena and will be in all schools this week.
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