COVID-19 in Ottawa: Fast Facts for Aug. 11, 2021

Paddlers make their way along the Rideau River in Ottawa on Monday, Aug 9, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

OTTAWA -

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

Fast Facts:

• The University of Ottawa will require everyone on campus be vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall.
• Calls are growing at other post-secondary institutions to mandate vaccines for students, staff, and faculty.
• Ottawa Public Health reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
• The Ontario government is now providing daily data showing how many people with COVID-19 are unvaccinated but the early reporting is incomplete.

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

• New COVID-19 cases: 10 new cases on Tuesday.
• Total COVID-19 cases: 27,893
• COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 6.9
• Positivity rate in Ottawa: 0.7 per cent (seven day average)
• Reproduction Number: 1.13 (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 are a patient and/or their 1 accompanying escort tra­velling out of country for medical treatment;
• 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.

Long-term care staff, caregivers, volunteers and visitors who are fully immunized against COVID-19 are not required to present a negative COVID-19 test before entering or visiting a long-term care home.

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 Friday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• COVID-19 Drive-Thru Assessment Centre at 300 Coventry Road: Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• The Moodie Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 
• The Ray Friel Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• North Grenville COVID-19 Assessment Centre (Kemptville) – 15 Campus Drive: Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 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, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday

COVID-19 screening tool:

The COVID-19 screening tool for summer camp children and staff. All campers and staff must complete the COVID-19 School and Childcare screening tool daily.

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

uOttawa makes COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for all on campus

The University of Ottawa now says that COVID-19 vaccination will be mandatory for all students, staff, faculty and visitors to its campus.

Anyone who will be on campus in the fall must have had at least one dose of a vaccine by Sept. 7 and must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15.

The University of Ottawa is the first university in Canada to make vaccines mandatory on campus, following in the steps of Seneca College, which announced its mandatory vaccination policy last month. Other universities in Canada have policies that require students to be vaccinated to live in residence or to self-report their vaccine status before setting foot on campus, while still maintaining access for unvaccinated individuals.

Previously, the university said proof of vaccination would only be required to live in residence or participate in sports, but on Tuesday said it was expanding the requirement to anyone on its campus.

The University of Ottawa campus is quiet, Wednesday, April 22, 2020 in Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Calls grow for mandatory vaccinations on post-secondary campuses

As the University of Ottawa becomes the first Canadian university to implement mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for everyone on campus, calls are growing for universities and colleges across Ontario to follow suit.

Colleges Ontario and the Council for Ontario Universities are now both calling on the province to implement mandatory vaccinations for students, staff and faculty on campus.

It’s now also coming from students themselves.

Two Kingston post-secondary students have launched a petition hoping Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College, where they attend, will ensure people are vaccinated.

Students walk by a sign at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., urging everyone to follow COVID-19 guidelines, Sept. 29, 2020. (Kimberley Johnson / CTV News Ottawa)

OPH reports 10 new COVID-19 cases in Ottawa Tuesday

Ottawa Public Health is reporting 10 more people in the city have tested positive for COVID-19. No new deaths were reported Tuesday.

This is the fifth time in six days that OPH has reported 10 or more new COVID-19 cases, but it is also the 25th day in a row that the health unit has said no one in the city has died from COVID-19. There is also one fewer person in hospital with COVID-19. There is one active COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

To date, Ottawa has seen 27,893 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began and 593 residents have died. Another eight cases in Ottawa are considered resolved.In the past 30 days,

Ottawa Public Health has recorded 32 confirmed cases of the delta variant. To date, no one infected with the delta variant has died.

 

COVID-19 Cases in Ottawa
Infogram

Ontario reports COVID-19 vaccination data in conjunction with new cases

The Ontario government is providing new publicly available data to indicate how many COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the province were in vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated individuals.

The initial release of data suggested two thirds of newly reported cases in Ontario were unvaccinated individuals; however, the data released at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday contained numerous discrepancies with other publicly available information, and came with disclaimers warning the data “may not match the daily COVID-19 case count because records with a missing or invalid health card number cannot be linked.” 

When asked for more clarity on the data provided, CTV News Ottawa and CTV News Toronto were both directed to statements on the government's website. 

It is unclear if, or when, these data will be broken down by individual public health unit (PHU). Ottawa Public Health does not currently report vaccination status of the people who test positive for COVID-19. The province does release cases by vaccination data by PHU in regular reports but the published information only includes cases up to July 24 at this time, showing that 95.7 per cent of all COVID-19 cases reported between Dec. 14, 2020 and July 24, 2021 were in unvaccinated individuals. 

FILE - A nurse prepares to give a COVID-19 vaccine to Castro Arian in Edmonton Alta, on Tuesday December 15, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson