COVID-19 hospitalizations surge in Ottawa

The number of Ottawa residents in hospital for COVID-19 treatment is rapidly approaching its highest point of the pandemic.

Ten more patientsare in hospital Tuesday for a total of 48. Ten are currently in intensive care.

It's been a rapid increase: Ottawa Public Health (OPH) reported 38 hospitalizations in Monday's daily report, 27 one week ago and 13 on Sept. 23, when Ottawa medical officer of health Vera Etches offered that relatively low number as the reason why the city hadn't been moved to red on the colour-coded pandemic scale.

On Friday, the city was declared a red zone.

Hospitalizations in Ottawa peaked at the end of April with 62 patients. The most Ottawa COVID-19 patients in intensive care were 20 in mid-April.

OPHlogged 116 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, and declared 115 more cases resolved. OPH didn't report any additional deaths Tuesday. There are currently 839 known active cases in the city.

About two-thirds of Tuesday's new cases are people under 40.

Since the pandemic began,5,662 Ottawans have tested positive for COVID-19, of which 4,411 cases have been declared resolved and297 have resulted in death.

OPH is reporting no new outbreaks in schools or hospitals.

Public health officials say COVID-19 test results are beginning to arrive more quicklythan in recent days: people are now getting their results within 48 hours 44 per cent of the time, a rate that dipped to single digits last week.

Elsewhere, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit logged 26 more casessince its last update Friday, and the Renfrew County health unit logged seven new cases.