No relief from the flu as Quebec calls for family holiday caution

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 trends arestable or rising.
• Its flu wastewater level rises, cases and tests are stable.
• The city's COVID vaccine pace slightly slows.
• The level of flu activity remains high in the Belleville area.

The latest guidance

Local officialssay the health-care system, particularly for children, is under a lot of pressure.The flu season is worse and started earlier than normal, plus there are thecontinued challenges ofCOVID-19 andrespiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Ottawa's children's hospital CHEO is getting staffing help from the Canadian Red Cross.

Quebec's public health director said Mondayparents of babiesshould potentially reconsider big family gatherings and visits this yearto avoid high-risk situations.

• Red Cross is just the latest step in CHEO's long-term plea for help
• 'Intense' flu season hits Canadian kids hard, landing more in hospital

Expertsstrongly recommendpeople wear masks indoors.

Staying home when sick, keeping hands and surfaces cleanand keeping up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccines are also recommendedto help keep people safe, especially more vulnerable people including children.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH)'s weekly flu report saidactivity and test positivity are stable compared to last week but still above the usual pre-pandemic winter peak. Test positivity remains around 28 per cent.

Wastewater

Data from the research teamsays the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, as of Dec. 6, has been rising for six days back to roughly around where it was a month ago.

OPHsaid Thursdayflu levels in wastewater are very high. COVID andRSV levels are moderate.

Hospitals

OPH's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients is a stable 18, according to Tuesday's update, with fourpatientsin intensive care.

The health unit says the number of COVID hospital admissions is moderate.

There is another count that includesotherpatients, such as peopleadmitted for other reasons who then test positive for COVID, those admitted for lingering COVIDcomplications, and thosetransferred from other health units.

That number is up slightly from where it was over the previous two weeks.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Testing strategieschangedunderthe Omicron variant, meaning manyCOVID-19 casesaren't reflected incounts. Public health officials now only trackand reportoutbreaksin health-care settings.

Ottawa's COVID test positivity rate rises to about 14per cent after a steady decline.OPHconsidered itmoderate last week.

There are 19active COVID outbreaks in Ottawa. This islow, according to OPH, and the number may be stabilizing after a steady drop.

The health unit also reports twoflu outbreaks, while the number of "other" respiratory illnessoutbreaks nearly allin child-care settings are slightly down at 35. Fiveof theseoutbreaks in schools have more than 100 cases, though, with the most at 177 cases.

OPH reported 156 more COVID cases over fourdays and the deaths of fivepeoplewith COVID who ranged in age from their 60s to 90 or above.In all,975Ottawa residents who had COVID have died since the start of the pandemic, including365of them this year.

Vaccines

As of the most recent weekly update, 93per cent of Ottawa residents aged five and up had at least one COVIDvaccine dose,90 per cent had at least two and 62 per cent at least three.

Thirty-four per cent of Ottawans aged 12 and older had at least four doses.

Ottawa residents received about 8,900 COVID-19 vaccine doses in the last week, according to OPH.About 6,900 of them were fourth doses.

That number is down slightly from recent weeks. When it comes to the number of doses administered by OPH, the most recent week was the first with fewer than 10,000 vaccine doses given since late September.

About 9,050residents younger than five have had a first dose, which isabout 20per cent of Ottawa's population of that age group. About 3,950, or nine per cent, have had two.

WATCH | Looking into the slow uptake of COVID vaccines for young kids:

Why is COVID-19 vaccine uptake in young kids so low? | About That

2 years ago

Duration 23:48

Canadian health-care experts say not enough young kids are getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Our producer goes to a vaccination centre in Toronto to try to get a better sense of the numbers. Then, Dr. Danielle Martin joins About That with Andrew Chang to help him understand why numbers are so low and what it means for Canadians.

Across the region

Spread

Coronavirus wastewater trends are low and stableinKingstonand low across sites in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties.They're slowly rising in Casselman, Cornwall and Hawkesbury.

Data from other areas is out of date or unavailable.

The average COVID-19 test positivity in the Belleville area rose slightly to about 10 per cent after generally dropping for more than two months. Itslevel of flu activityremains high.

Average test positivity rises to around 15 per cent in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. It's been between 10 and 18 per cent since the end of summer. It's been falling about two months in the Kingston area to sit around six per cent.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Western Quebec's health authority,CISSSO,reporteda rise to 97COVID-19hospitalizations. Noneof the patients are in intensive care.

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa reportabout 35COVID hospitalizations, with fiveof these patients in intensive care.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its count rose to sixTuesday and has been generally low and stable for nearly two weeks.

Two more HPEresidents with COVID have died, bringing its 2022 totalto 77 and its pandemic total to 96. Other health units with updatesTuesday didn't reportany more deaths.

This is by far the deadliest year for reported COVID-19 deaths in the wider Ottawa-Gatineau region, with nearly half ofits more than 2,000 reported COVID deaths coming in 2022.

Vaccines

Across eastern Ontario, between 81 and92 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 53 and65 per cent of those residentshave hadat leastthree.