Ottawa Public Health reported a spike in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table warns of exponential growth tied to the Omicron variant in the weeks ahead.
OPH added 199 new COVID-19 cases in its report on Thursday, a daily increase not seen since the highs of last spring and well above the 116 cases reported on Wednesday.
Another death related to COVID-19 was also reported, raising the death toll of the pandemic locally to 619.
Active cases of the virus in Ottawa meanwhile rose to 973.
OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard states there are 13 confirmed cases of the Omicron variant in the city, but genetic sequencing to confirm the variant of concern can lag multiple days behind cases themselves.
There are now 48 ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa, 35 of which affect schools or child-care settings.
OPH’s new webpage reporting community exposures has added notices for outbreaks at the National Arts Centre on Dec. 5, the Carling Avenue Cineplex on Dec. 8, the Lansdowne Goodlife Fitness on Dec. 9 and the Shenkmman Arts Centre on Dec. 10. Further details about when possible exposure occurred and instructions for affected residents are available on the webpage.
There are currently five people in hospital with COVID-19 in Ottawa, none of whom are in the intensive care unit (ICU).
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But the province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table released new modeling Thursday showing COVID-19 cases could hit 10,000 per day in the province by Christmas, with ICU levels becoming unsustainable in early January.
Health officials said the worst-case scenarios can be avoided if Ontarians cut their contacts by 50 per cent and the province administers 250,000 booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per day.
Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, will hold a press conference with Mayor Jim Watson to address the local pandemic situation in a press conference at 2 p.m. Thursday.
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