Another COVID-19 death and hundreds of new cases have been added in Ottawa Public Health’s update on Thursday.
The local public health unit reports that 626 people have now died in connection with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
OPH also added 1,231 new infections to the total of confirmed cases in the city on Thursday, but with limited access to testing across the city, this number is assumed to be an underestimate.
Surveillance monitoring shows the average level of COVID-19 viral signal in Ottawa’s wastewater system has hit levels not seen since the last major wave in April 2021.
Ottawa health officials said this week they’re keeping closer tabs on hospitalizations related to COVID-19, which are also on the rise.
Three more people are now in hospital with an active case of the virus as of Thursday, now up to 35 patients in total. Four people with COVID-19 are in intensive care.
The vast majority of these patients are aged 60 or older, though one child below 10 years of age is among the hospitalized.
CHEO, the Eastern Ontario pediatric hospital, on Wednesday flagged a worrying possible trend of infants being admitted to its facilities with COVID-19 over the past few weeks. It encouraged pregnant individuals to get vaccinated in an effort to reduce cases among the youngest in the city.
All hospitalized cases of the virus reported by OPH are among those whose stay in hospital requires an “active intervention” related to their infection, that is, their hospitalization is either caused by or extended because of COVID-19. These figures can include those who contracted the virus while in hospital.
There are now 78 active COVID-19 outbreaks in Ottawa, according to OPH, with six new outbreaks added in the past day.
The majority of these outbreaks affect hospitals and communal living settings such as long-term care homes, as well as child-care facilities.
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