OTTAWA -- Good morning. Here is the latest news on COVID-19 and its impact on Ottawa.
Fast Facts:
- Ottawa's COVID-19 trends held steady on Tuesday.
- The province says issues with booking COVID-19 vaccine appointments with the Ontario portal should be resolved today.
- The City of Ottawa offered bus shuttles for seniors who had their vaccine appointments double-booked on Tuesday.
- After a year of low ridership, OC Transpo staff are considering cutting jobs and routes to save money.
- The Eastern Ontario Health Unit will be moving to the red zone next week.
COVID-19 by the numbers in Ottawa (Ottawa Public Health data):
- New COVID-19 cases: 64 new cases on Tuesday
- Total COVID-19 cases: 16,252
- COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 55.0
- Positivity rate in Ottawa: 3.9 per cent (Mar. 15 to Mar. 21)
- Reproduction Number: 1.07 (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 Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Friday to Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- COVID-19 Drive-thru assessment centre at National Arts Centre: 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.
- 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.
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
COVID-19 trends hold steady Tuesday
Ottawa Public Health is reporting 64 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19 and one more person has died.
The update Tuesday brings Ottawa's pandemic total to 16,252 cases since March 11, 2020. The pandemic has claimed the lives of 457 residents of Ottawa.
There were 1,546 new cases reported across Ontario on Tuesday. The province also reported nine new deaths and 1,271 newly resolved cases.
Two more cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K. were confirmed in Ottawa on Tuesday, according to the province. To date, Ottawa has seen 21 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant and two confirmed cases of the B.1.351 variant. Ottawa has also seen 334 suspected variant cases, up from 333 on Monday.
Issues with vaccine portal should be fixed today
The head of Ontario's COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force, retired Gen. Rick Hillier, is suggesting glitches and issues with the vaccination booking portal should be resolved by the end of the day Tuesday.
Ontario's Ministry of Health said Monday it was aware that some residents have had trouble booking COVID-19 vaccine appointments through the province's online booking system.
Several residents told CTV News Ottawa they tried to book their first and second appointments, but were unable to progress through the online form because there was no way to book a second dose appointment.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Gen. Hillier said he was aware of the issue and said he expected the problems would be resolved before phone lines reopen Wednesday.
"By the time I asked the team about it, they had already started working to find out what in the coding was causing the problem," Hillier said. "We'll have it fixed by the end of the day. Any of the glitches that we have encountered, we'll have them fixed by the end of business tonight and be ready to roll again tomorrow so that we can book every single appointment for a vaccine as soon as possible."
Hillier said in the past 36 hours, approximately 200,000 appointments were booked provincewide using the vaccine booking system.
City shuttling seniors to vaccine clinics after double-booking errors
The City of Ottawa is offering voluntary shuttle service for some residents who arrived at vaccine clinics on Tuesday with duplicate vaccine appointments.
Last week, the city and the province announced that due to an error with the provincial vaccine booking system, about 3,100 appointments in Ottawa were mistakenly double-booked. Residents were told to await a phone call or email from provincial officials to reschedule their appointments.
In a memo to city councillors, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches and Emergency and Protective Services General Manager Anthony Di Monte said the Eva James Memorial Community Centre was over capacity Tuesday morning. To rectify this, the city offered shuttles to other vaccine clinics for residents who were double-booked and who had not had their appointments re-booked by the province.
The shuttles will bring residents who were set to receive their vaccines at either the Eva James Memorial Community Centre or the Ruddy Family YMCA-YWCA to another site. Residents who choose to use the voluntary shuttles must still arrive at their original vaccination site first.
The city opened a temporary clinic at the François Dupuis Recreation Centre in Orléans and expanded service at the Nepean Sportsplex to accommodate the double-bookings.
OC Transpo making cuts after a year of low ridership
After a year of low ridership, OC Transpo staff are considering service and job cuts in a bid to save money.
A report prepared for the transit commission meeting next week outlines steps the transit service plans to take to find cost savings as fare revenue continues to be low.
"A set of COVID-19 service adjustments are being made in mid-2021, which will better match the connectivity and capacity of the OC Transpo system to the current travel needs in Ottawa," the report says. "These service adjustments are based on current ridership counts and on suggestions from customers, employers, Councillors, and staff."
OC Transpo expects the changes would save $5.5 million in 2021 and $11 million in 2022.
Among the changes are 70 job cuts, which staff say will be attained through attrition and reassignment.
For riders, a number of routes will be shortened or temporarily cut starting in June. Other routes will have fewer buses per hour.
EOHU moving to red zone
The medical officer of health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) says the region will be moving to the "Red-Control" zone next week.
Dr. Paul Roumeliotis told CTV News at Five the region cannot remain in the "Orange-Restrict" level.
"Over the weekend, we had 72 cases in two days and we're a quarter of the population of Ottawa. Today, we had another 16," he said. "I spoke to the chief medical officer of health and I said if all goes well over the weekend we can remain in orange but unfortunately those numbers have gone the wrong way."
Dr. Roumeliotis noted that half of all of the new cases reported recently in the EOHU were variants of concern.
"With all of these things put together, I think we have no choice to go into the red zone," he said.
