Ottawa's COVID trends stable, 1 more death in region

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 levels are stable.
• One more personwith COVID has died in the region.

The latest

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) saysrespiratory virus trends are stableat moderate to high levels.

Expertsstrongly recommendpeople wear masks indoorsand, in Ontario, in the daysafter having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sickandbeing up-to-date with COVID and flu vaccinesalsohelp protect vulnerable people.

Non-COVID respiratoryvirus levels are generally low and seasonal.

Wastewater

Data from the research teamshows, as of Feb. 16,the weekly average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater had risen slightly since the last update.

OPH now considersthe averageto behigh, down from its previous assessment ofvery high.

Hospitals

The health unit's count of active, local COVID-19 hospital patients dropped to 20 from 30 at the last update.

One of the patients is in intensive care.

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 count is also stable.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Ottawa's COVID-19 test positivity rate rose slightly to around 12 per cent, which OPH calls moderate.

Ottawa has 21 active COVID outbreaks, up from 16 at the last update.OPH says that's very high.

OPH has reported 118more COVID cases since Tuesday.In all,1,018 Ottawa residents have died since the start of the pandemic with COVID as a contributing or underlying factor.

Vaccines

Thirty-one per cent of Ottawans age 12 and older have had their most recent COVID vaccine dose within the last six months, as is generally recommended,with older age groups having higher rates.

This does not factor inimmunity from getting COVID.

As of the most recent weekly update, 85per cent of Ottawa residents had at least one COVIDvaccine dose, 82per cent had at least two, 56per cent at least three and 31 per cent at least four.

Across the region

Spread

Coronavirus wastewater averages are mixed in Kingstonand otherwise out of date or unavailable outside of Ottawa.

The EOHU'sCOVID risk level is considered low.

Hospitalizations and deaths

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa report about 39COVID-19 hospitalizations, withfivepatients in intensive care. One person in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit has died since the last COVID-19 update.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its local hospitalization count rises to 17 patients, its highest number since November.

Western Quebec has 74 COVID hospital patients, which is dropping. Twoof them arein intensive care. The province is also reporting another COVID death there.

Vaccines

The Kingston area's health unit says 32 per cent of its population age five and up have had avaccine in the last six months. It's26 per cent in HPE and unavailable elsewhere.

Across eastern Ontario, between 79 and90 per cent of residents age five and up have received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses, and between 52 and65 per cent of those residentshave hadat leastthree.