OTTAWA -- Good morning. Here is the latest news on COVID-19 and its impact on Ottawa.

Fast Facts:

  • The City of Ottawa is considering an 8 p.m. curfew and mask use for local parks.
  • Ottawa saw a dip in the number of new COVID-19 cases Tuesday compared to previous days.
  • Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott is denying political decisions affected how "hot spots" in the city were identified.
  • CHEO is preparing to accept adults under 40 as transfer patients as local hospital beds fill up.
  • The Quebec government is extending lockdown measures in Gatineau for another week and applying them to the entire Outaouais region starting today.

COVID-19 by the numbers in Ottawa (Ottawa Public Health data):

  • New COVID-19 cases: 194 new cases on Tuesday.
  • Total COVID-19 cases: 20,267
  • COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 184.3
  • Positivity rate in Ottawa: 9.9 per cent (April 5 to April 11)
  • Reproduction Number: 1.32 (seven day average)

Testing:

Who should get a test?

Ottawa Public Health says you can get a COVID-19 test at an assessment centre, care clinic, or community testing site if any of the following apply to you:

  • You are showing COVID-19 symptoms;
  • You have been exposed to a confirmed case of the virus, as informed by Ottawa Public Health or exposure notification through the COVID Alert app;
  • You are a resident or work in a setting that has a COVID-19 outbreak, as identified and informed by Ottawa Public Health;
  • You are a resident, a worker or a visitor to long-term care, retirement homes, homeless shelters or other congregate settings (for example: group homes, community supported living, disability-specific communities or congregate settings, short-term rehab, hospices and other shelters);
  • You are a person who identifies as First Nations, Inuit or Métis;
  • You are a person travelling to work in a remote First Nations, Inuit or Métis community;
  • You received a preliminary positive result through rapid testing;
  • You require testing 72 hours before a scheduled (non-urgent or emergent) surgery (as recommended by your health care provider);
  • You are a patient and/or their 1 accompanying escort tra­velling out of country for medical treatment;
  • You are an international student that has passed their 14-day quarantine period;
  • You are a farm worker;
  • You are an educator who cannot access pharmacy-testing; or
  • You are in a targeted testing group as outlined in guidance from the Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Where to get tested for COVID-19 in Ottawa:

There are several sites for COVID-19 testing in Ottawa. To book an appointment, visit https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/shared-content/assessment-centres.aspx

  • The Brewer Ottawa Hospital/CHEO Assessment Centre: Open Monday to Sunday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
  • COVID-19 Drive-Thru Assessment Centre at 300 Coventry Road: Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • The Moodie Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Open Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (testing only)
  • The Heron Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • The Ray Friel Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (testing only)
  • COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Howard Darwin Centennial Arena: Open daily 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
  • Centretown Community Health Centre: Open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
  • Sandy Hill Community Health Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 pm.
  • Somerset West Community Health Centre: Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Wednesday.

Vaccine eligibility screening tool:

To check and see if you are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Ottawa, click here

COVID-19 screening tool:

The COVID-19 screening tool for students heading back to in-person classes can be found here.

Symptoms:

Classic Symptoms: fever, new or worsening cough, shortness of breath

Other symptoms: sore throat, difficulty swallowing, new loss of taste or smell, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, pneumonia, new or unexplained runny nose or nasal congestion

Less common symptoms: unexplained fatigue, muscle aches, headache, delirium, chills, red/inflamed eyes, croup

City of Ottawa eyeing 8 p.m. curfew in parks

The city of Ottawa is looking at imposing an 8 p.m. curfew in city parks after concerns about crowding last weekend during the provincial stay-at-home order.

Mayor Jim Watson told CTV Morning Live Tuesday morning that police and bylaw officers will step up patrols in parks starting this weekend after bylaw received hundreds of calls over the weekend.

He also said city staff are now looking at new measures to address illegal parties and limit the spread of COVID-19 in public spaces.

Somerset ward Coun. Catherine McKenney said they and other councillors have requested that the issue be discussed at Wednesday's city council meeting.

Vincent Massey Park beer bottles

COVID-19 cases in Ottawa dip below 200 on Tuesday but weekly trends remain high

Ottawa Public Health is reporting 194 more people in the city have tested positive for COVID-19, the lowest figure following a weekend of record-breaking case counts.

OPH reported three straight days of record-setting case counts, with 242 on Friday, 325 on Saturday and 370 on Sunday. There were 348 new cases reported Monday.

Case counts are frequently lower on Tuesdays because of lower testing volumes over the weekend.n the past seven days (April 7 to 13 inclusive), Ottawa Public Health has reported 1,831 new cases of COVID-19, or an average of 261.6 cases per day. The previous seven-day period, March 30 to April 6, saw 1,371 newly reported cases or an average of 171.4 cases per day.

The weekly incidence rate of new cases per 100,000 residents continues to climb.

The number of people in Ottawa hospitals fell by one patient on Tuesday but one more patient has been admitted to the ICU. 

 

 

Health minister denies politics behind labelling K2V area a COVID-19 'hot spot'

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott is denying politics was behind the decision to label a part of western Ottawa a COVID-19 "hot spot,” despite data showing the rate of infections in the area is lower than other parts of the city.

Last week, Ontario named three forward sortation areas (FSAs)—the first three digits of a postal code—as hot spots in Ottawa: K1T, K1V, and K2V.

While K1T and K1V contain several neighbourhoods previously identified by Ottawa Public Health as priority areas for vaccines, none of OPH's priority neighbourhoods are in the K2V FSA.

Elliott stressed that the decision to identify the area as a hot spot was made based on available evidence and not on politics. The K2V FSA is within the riding of Progressive Conservative MPP Merrilee Fullerton, the Minister of Long-Term Care.

"Absolutely no political motivation whatsoever," Elliott said. "This was decided on the basis of the clinical evidence and the recommendations of Dr. (Vera) Etches, the Chief Medical Officer of Health, and the Public Health Measures Table."

Data from the non-profit research institute ICES Ontario show that the K2V FSA has seen much lower rates of COVID-19 deaths and infections compared to the other two identified hot spots and some other FSAs in Ottawa that were not named as hot spots.

Christine Elliott April 13

CHEO preparing to accept adults requiring critical care amid surge of COVID-19 patients

The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario is preparing to accept transfers of adult patients requiring critical care as local hospitals see record numbers of COVID-19 patients.

CHEO says it has been running "at or near full capacity" since the winter but has been developing a plan to go beyond surge capacity in order to open up intensive care beds for adults approximately 40 and younger.

The emergency department at CHEO remains limited to patients under 18.

As of Tuesday, Ottawa Public Health said there are 95 COVID-19 patients in Ottawa hospitals, including 30 in intensive care. Nine of those patients are between the between the ages of 20 and 39 and three are in ICU.

CHEO's Emergency Department.

Quebec extends lockdown in Outaoauis to April 25 across entire region

The Quebec government is extending lockdown orders in Gatineau for at least another week and applying them to the entire Outaouais region.

Premier Francois Legault announced Tuesday that schools and non-essential businesses will remain closed, the nighttime curfew will be at 8 p.m., and that the restrictions would apply to the entire Outaouais region starting Wednesday.

The measures will be in place until at least April 25. The lockdown in Gatineau was previously set to expire April 18, having been extended once already from its initial expiry date of April 12.

Lockdown restrictions and the 8 p.m. curfew were previously in place only in the city of Gatineau and not the remainder of the western Quebec region, where the nightly curfew begins at 9:30 p.m.

The Outaouais region saw a record-setting 290 COVID-19 cases on Monday, and the area reported another 245 cases on Tuesday.

Curfew starts in Quebec