Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today

• Ottawa's hospitalizations and wastewater levels continue decline.
• Three COVID-19 deaths reported in Ottawa, one in the Belleville area.
• Wastewater trends vary across Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties.

Hospitals

There are 48Ottawa residentsin local hospitals being treated forCOVID-19, according to Wednesday's update from Ottawa Public Health (OPH). Seven of those patients arein an ICU. Both numbers are declining.

The numbersdonot includepeople who came to the hospital for other reasons and then test positive for COVID-19. They also don't cover people with lingering COVID-19problems, or patients transferredfrom other health units.

OPH shares those numbers a few times per week.

Hospitals are also challenged on a different level by rising spreadbecausestaffing shortages lower their capacity. Additionally, there are 23hospital outbreaks reported by OPH, a total that has also declined.

Other numbers to watch

Theaveragelevelof coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, which doesn't rely onCOVID-19 testing, is declining again after plateauing for about a week.

The case count surged to record levels in many placesthis winter and as the Omicron variant's spreadoverwhelms and limits testing, the actual number of cases in Ottawais manytimeshigherand some familiar numbers are affected.

On Wednesday, OPH reported 211 moreCOVID-19 cases and three moredeaths. All of these victims were older than age 70.

The test positivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes is around 12per cent. The average in those homes is about fourper cent.

The rolling seven-day averageof newly confirmedCOVID-19 cases expressed per 100,000 residents is around 130.Limited testing capacity makes that metric less reliable.

Vaccines

910,799:The number ofOttawa residents age five and upwith at least one dose of theCOVID-19 vaccine, about 450more than on Monday. That's92per cent of the eligible population.

861,546:The number ofOttawa residents age five and upwith a seconddose, about 1,700 more than Monday. Eighty-sevenper centof the eligible population now has at least two doses.

525,503:The number of Ottawans age 18 and upwith a third dose, about 2,200more than Monday.That covers 62per cent of adults.Eligibility isextremelylimited for children under 18.

53,442:The number of children in Ottawa age five to 11 who have received their first dose of the pediatricCOVID-19 vaccine, 68per cent ofthat age group. About 29,700, or 38per cent, have two doses.

Across the region

Outside of Ottawa, the wider region has about 120 COVID-19 hospitalizationsand about 30of them needintensive care.Both numbers have been slowly declining.

Those numbers don't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, whichhas instituted a different way of reporting. Itshospitalizations are stable as of its Wednesday update, with one more COVID-19 death reported.

Hospitalizations are also stable in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties. Its Brockville wastewater signal has been trending down and in Kemptville, it has beentrending up.