For 2nd straight day, Ottawa sets new high in coronavirus wastewater signal

• Ottawa's record-high wastewater average rises further.
• City'shospitalizations for active COVID-19 remain stable.
• An Ottawa resident in their 80s who had COVID has died.
• Wastewater signals are rising across Leeds-Grenville-Lanark.

Today's Ottawa update

Theaverage level of coronavirus detected in Ottawa'swastewaterhas reachedanother record high with the latest update (the bold red line in the graph below). It is five times what it was in early March and higher than waves last spring and this past winter.

It's a keyindicatorof whatOttawa Public Health (OPH)calls a concerning resurgence of COVID-19in the city.

Wednesday also saw the second-highest one-day report of wastewater signal in Ottawa.Those records don't reflect the first wave of the pandemicwhen wastewater was not being monitored for traces of the virus.

Ten Ottawa residents are in local hospitals being treated forCOVID-19, according to Friday's OPHupdate, with none in in intensive care. Hospitalizations remained stable through March.

Experts say the current spread may not have made its way into older age groups, and say both vaccination and increasing immunitymay becontributing to that relative stability.

Hospitalization figures don't includepatients admitted for other reasons whothen tested positive for COVID-19. Nor do they include those admitted for lingering COVID-19complications, nor patients transferredfrom other health units.

That number has beenrising.

Testing strategies have changedunderthe contagiousOmicron variant, which means many newCOVID-19 casesaren't reflected in current counts. Only outbreaks that occur in health-care settings are recorded.

On Friday, OPH reported 216moreCOVID-19 cases andthe death of someone in their 80s who had COVID. The health unit also reported 23health-care outbreaks, which is a slight increase.

The rolling weekly incidence rate of newly confirmedCOVID-19 cases, expressed per 100,000 residents, isaround 90.

The averagepositivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes is high but stable at around 18per cent. The average positivity in these homes rises to around five per cent.

As of Monday's weekly update, 92 per cent of eligible Ottawa residents have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, 88 per cent have at least two and 62per cent of residents age 12 and up have at least three.

Across the region

Quebec'sinstitute of public healthand thehead of the OntarioScience Advisory Tablesay their provinces are in the midst of another pandemic wave.

Communities outside Ottawa are reporting about 60COVID-19 hospitalizations, which has been slowly rising.About15of themremain in intensive care.

Neither of those numbersincludes Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, which reported a stable 18 local hospitalizations Friday. It has a different method of counting.

Leeds, Grenville and Lanark(LGL)counties report 18hospitalizations, which are its most in about two months.

Recent wastewaterdata from the Kingston area includesome of the highest readings of 2022. The wastewater signal is alsorisingacross LGL's sites.