OTTAWA -- Ottawa Public Health is reporting 184 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19, putting the city's pandemic total over 17,000 cases, ten days after surpassing 16,000.

This is the fifth straight day of triple-digit case counts for the city, which remains in the "Red-Control" zone under Ontario's COVID-19 framework. 

Ottawa Public Health reported 126 new cases on Sunday, 133 new cases on Saturday, 139 new cases on Friday, and 151 new cases on Thursday. The 184 cases reported Monday is the highest number of new cases in a single day since Jan. 9, 2021, when 234 cases were reported.

Ottawa has only ever seen five straight days of case counts above 100 twice since the pandemic began: from Jan. 1 to Jan. 6, 2021, and from Jan. 13 to Jan. 17, 2021.

The COVID-19 dashboard by Ottawa Public Health now lists Ottawa's total number of cases since the pandemic began at 17,065.

One more death was confirmed on Monday. To date, 460 residents of Ottawa have died of COVID-19.

Ontario reported 2,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the province as well as 10 new deaths and 1,524 newly resolved cases. Public Health Ontario added 132 new cases to its count on Monday. Figures from OPH and the provice often differ because the respective health units gather data for their daily reports at different times of day.

The new figures pushed Ottawa's incidence rate of cases per 100,000 residents above 76, from 73 on the weekend. OPH is also reporting an increase in the testing positivity rate and the estimated reproduction number.

OTTAWA'S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS

Ottawa is in "Red-Control" status under Ontario's COVID-19 framework.

Ottawa Public Health data:

  • COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (March 21-27): 76.9 
  • Positivity rate in Ottawa: 5.0 per cent (March 21-27)
  • Reproduction number: 1.20 (seven day average)

Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.

The red-control threshold is a weekly incidence rate of 40 or more cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent or higher and a reproduction number of 1.2 or more.

The orange-restrict category of Ontario's COVID-19 framework includes a weekly rate of cases per 100,000 between 25 to 39.9, a percent positivity of 1.3 to 2.4 per cent, and a reproduction number of approximately 1 to 1.1.  

VARIANTS OF CONCERN

Public Health Ontario reported 53 new cases involving variants of concern in Ottawa on Monday. There are no new confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 variant.

There are 521 variants of concern cases under investigation.

There are 23 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in Ottawa, and five cases of the B.1.351 variant.

VACCINES IN OTTAWA

As of March 29:

  • Vaccine doses administered in Ottawa (first and second shots): 120,924 (Up 10,808 since Friday)*
  • COVID-19 doses received (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna): 136,140

OPH says the city received a shipment of 2,700 doses of the Moderna vaccine on March 26.

*OPH says staff were able to extract additional doses out of several vials, which were given to residents. In a statement on its dashboard, OPH said, "Vaccine inventory is based on an expected 5 dose per vial supply. Occasionally, an additional dose (6th dose) is successfully extracted and administered to clients."

HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA

There are 36 people in Ottawa-area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses, up from 34 on Sunday.

Twelve people are in the intensive care unit, up from 11.

Of the people in hospital, three are in their 30s (one is in the ICU), three are in their 40s (one is in the ICU), six are in their 50s (two are in the ICU), eight are in their 60s (four are in the ICU), seven are in their 70s (four are in the ICU), eight are in their 80s and one is in their 90s.

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA

The number of people with known active cases of COVID-19 is now above 1,100 for the first time since Jan. 19, 2021.

There are 1,133 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Monday, up from 1,029 active cases on Sunday.

Seventy-nine more Ottawa residents have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. Ottawa Public ealth reports 15,393 resolved cases of COVID-19 in the capital.

The number of active cases is the number of total cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is considered resolved 14 days after known symptom onset or positive test result.

 

COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY

  • 0-9 years old: 19 new cases (1,303 total cases)
  • 10-19 years-old: 34 new cases (2,192 total cases)
  • 20-29 years-old: 34 new cases (3,742 total cases)
  • 30-39 years-old: 23 new cases (2,431 total cases)
  • 40-49 years-old: 31 new cases (2,196 total cases)
  • 50-59 years-old: 22 new cases (2,046 total cases)
  • 60-69-years-old: 11 new cases (1,224 total cases)
  • 70-79 years-old: Nine new cases (722 total cases)
  • 80-89 years-old: One new case (731 total cases)
  • 90+ years old: Zero new cases (475 total cases)
  • Unknown: Zero new cases (3 cases total)

COVID-19 TESTING IN OTTAWA

The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce says 1,751 swabs were processed at local assessment centres on Sunday and labs performed 4,313 tests. 

The average turnaround from the time the swab is taken at a testing site to the result is 31 hours.

Across Ontario, 39,470 COVID-19 tests were completed on Sunday.

COVID-19 CASES ACROSS THE REGION

  • Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 37 new cases
  • Hastings Prince Edward Public Health: 7 new cases
  • Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Public Health: 6 new cases
  • Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: 18 new cases
  • Renfrew County and District Health Unit: 5 new cases
  • Outaouais (Gatineau and western Quebec): 84 new cases

INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS

Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 37 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.

Outbreaks have ended at a local group home, St. Elizabeth School and Gisele Lalonde school. New outbreaks were declared at the Royal Garden retirement Home and Sisters of Charity retirement home.

There are seven active community outbreaks: one is linked to a construction workplace, one is linked to recreation, two are linked to a services workplace, two are linked to restaurants and one is linked to a retail workplace.

The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

  1. École élémentaire publique Séraphin-Marion (March 14)
  2. St. Luke's Childcare Centre (March 15)
  3. École élémentaire catholique Arc-en-Ciel (March 19)
  4. École élémentaire catholique Horizon-Jeunesse (March 19)
  5. Henry Larsen Elementary School (March 19)
  6. École secondaire catholique Franco-Cité (March 21)
  7. Fallingbrook Community Elementary School (March 23)
  8. École secondaire publique Louis-Riel (March 25)
  9. St. Peter High School (March 26) 

The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

  1. Shelter (Jan. 26)
  2. The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (Feb. 19)
  3. Madonna Care Community (Feb. 26)
  4. Sarsfield Colonial Home (Feb. 27)
  5. Perley-Rideau Veterans' Health Centre – Gatineau Building (March 4)
  6. St. Vincent Hospital (March 6)
  7. Extendicare Medex (March 9)
  8. Peter D. Clark LTCH (March 10)
  9. Group Home (March 11)
  10. University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 12)
  11. Chapel Hill RH (March 13)
  12. The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (March 13)
  13. St. Patrick's Home (March 14)
  14. Osgoode Care Centre (March 15)
  15. St. Vincent Hospital (March 15)
  16. Carlingview Manor (March 16)
  17. University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 16)
  18. Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital (March 18)
  19. Portobello Retirement Residence (March 18)
  20. Extendicare West End Villa (March 19)
  21. Shelter (March 21) 
  22. University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 21)
  23. Supported Independent Living (March 23)
  24. Timberwalk Retirement Home (March 24)
  25. Longfields Manor (March 24)
  26. University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 26)
  27. Jardin Royal Garden (March 27) [NEW]
  28. Sisters of Charity (March 28) [NEW]

A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, two children or staff or household member cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a 14-day period where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the childcare establishment is considered an outbreak in a childcare establishment.

Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).

Two staff or patient cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a specified hospital unit within a 14-day period where both cases could have reasonably acquired their infection in hospital is considered an outbreak in a public hospital.