COVID-19 in Ottawa: Fast Facts for Aug. 20, 2021

A pedestrian walks past The Bank of Canada in Ottawa on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. (Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA -

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

Fast Facts:

• CHEO doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19
• Ontario's 64,000 public service members must be vaccinated or take regular COVID-19 tests
• Unvaccinated people in Ottawa 20 times more likely to contact COVID-19
• Ottawa sees a 10^th straight day with double-digit COVID-19 case numbers

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

• New COVID-19 cases: 19 new cases on Thursday
• Total COVID-19 cases: 28,049
• COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 12.1
• Positivity rate in Ottawa: 1.5 per cent (seven day average)
• Reproduction Number: 1.02 (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

CHEO doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19

All doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers at CHEO will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Ottawa children's hospital is joining SickKids in Toronto and the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in East York in implementing COVID-19 vaccine mandate polices for staff, volunteers, learners and contractors.

"As we enter this fourth wave, one of the things we know is, of course, COVID looks for unvaccinated people and children under 12 are unvaccinated and so we want to have layers of protection to make CHEO as safe as possible for everyone, of course principally for kids and families," said Alex Munter, President and CEO of CHEO.

"In addition to the PPE, the masking, the screening, the distancing and all of those measures, vaccination is an additional layer of protection that makes CHEO safer."

If doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers are not fully vaccinated, the hospitals say, "All options will be considered to effectively enforce the policy."

Ontario says all 64K members of the public service must be vaccinated or take regular COVID-19 tests

The Ontario government is requiring all 64,000 members of the Ontario Public Service to get vaccinated or they'll have to submit to regular COVID-19 testing.

In a memo sent out to employees Thursday afternoon, the government said all members of the public service will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or advise of a medical reason why they cannot be vaccinated.

The policy will apply to all public servants working in ministries or commission public bodies.

Unvaccinated people in Ottawa 20 times more likely to contract COVID-19

Ottawa's medical officer of health warns the risk of being infected with COVID-19 in Ottawa is 20 times higher for unvaccinated residents than for vaccinated people.

Dr. Vera Etches provided an update on the COVID-19 situation in Ottawa Thursday morning, warning the Delta variant is driving the COVID-19 increase in Ottawa, accounting for 60 per cent of new cases.

New statistics show between July 4 and Aug. 7, 112 cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa involved unvaccinated residents, six cases were in residents who had received their first dose but were not yet protected and 36 cases of COVID-19 were identified in Ottawa residents who had received one dose.

Dr. Etches says there were 14 "breakthrough" cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated residents.

"Of the eligible population, the risk of being infected in an unvaccinated person is more than 20 times than that of a person who is vaccinated." 

People walk down a busy street wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Yoav Aziz on Unsplash)

Ontario reports more than 500 new COVID-19 cases, 19 cases in Ottawa

Ottawa Public Health reported 19 new cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Thursday, the 10^th straight day with a double-digit case increase.

There are no new deaths linked to novel coronavirus in the capital.

Since the first case of COVID-19 in Ottawa in March 2020, there have been 28,049 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, including 593 deaths.

 

COVID-19 Cases in Ottawa
Infogram