OTTAWA -- Ottawa Public Health (OPH) has moved Ottawa into red status, which is the most severe status on its pandemic scale.
The scale is a way to monitor COVID-19 in the capital region and OPH says the core indicators for monitoring in Ottawa are grounded in the provincial framework for reopening and presented across the following four domains: Virus spread and containment, health care system, public health and laboratory testing.
OPH says the status was changed from Orange to Red on Oct. 9 following the Ontario Premier’s announcement of increased restrictions in Ottawa.
“The decision was made based on local analysis of COVID-19 indicators in the city,” OPH wrote in a statement.
“The decision to shift to red status was influenced by trends that were observed last week with respect to hospitalizations and outbreaks.”
OPH says cases and hospitalizations doubled in recent weeks, with more than 700 new cases last week. Additionally, there were 33 new outbreaks declared.
Tuesday, health officials reported 116 new cases of the virus in Ottawa.
In terms of virus spread, OPH has recorded 5662 total cases of COVID-19 with 839 active cases in the capital. There are 48 people in hospital, 10 are currently in ICU and 297 total deaths have been reported.
OPH is reporting health care system capacity at 101 per cent for acute beds occupied, 44 per cent for ICU beds occupied, and 15 per cent for ICU ventilator beds occupied.
There are four levels for overall status: green, yellow, orange and red.
