Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today

• Ottawa has no local patients with active COVID-19 in a hospital ICU.
• The city's wastewater signal has plateaued.
• Sixty per cent ofOttawa residents age 12 and up have a third COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Today's Ottawa update

There are 11Ottawa residentsin local hospitals being treated forCOVID-19, according to Wednesday's update from Ottawa Public Health (OPH). That number has been between 10 and 20 for the past 10 days.

For the first time since late December, none of the patients are being treated in an ICU.

Hospital 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. They dropped significantly this week.

Theaveragelevelof coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewateris now stable, with potential signs of a small increase. It's roughly three timeshigher than it was before the Omicron variant wave.

As Omicronoverwhelms and limits testing, the actual number of cases in Ottawaishigherthan the confirmedcount and some familiar numbers are affected.

Ottawa's medical officer of health said Mondayresidents should continue toassessrisks for their personal circumstancesas Ontario removesits capacity and gathering limits and proof-of-vaccination requirements.

The averagepositivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes stays around 11per cent, whilethe averagerate inside thehomes remainsaround fiveper cent.

On Wednesday,OPH reported 127moreCOVID-19 cases and no more deaths.

The rolling seven-day averageof newly confirmedCOVID-19 cases expressed per 100,000 residents sits around 80.

Vaccines

913,317:The number ofOttawa residents age five and upwith at least one dose of theCOVID-19 vaccine, about 200 more than on Monday. That's92per cent of the eligible population.

872,464:The number ofOttawa residents age five and upwith a seconddose, about 200 more than Monday.Eighty-eight per centof the eligible population now has at least two doses.

37,712:The number of children in Ottawa age five to 11 who have received their seconddose, about 150 more than Monday and 48per cent ofthat age group. First dose progress has stalled around70 per cent.

550,203:The number of Ottawans age 12 and upwith a third dose, about 3,000 more than Monday.That covers 60per cent of these residents; younger children only qualify for third dosesif they have certain health conditions.

Across the region

Outside of Ottawa, the wider region has about 50COVID-19 hospitalizations and 15of these patients requireintensive care. These numbers have been slowly dropping anddon't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE)Public Health.

That region remains stable with 25 local hospitalizations.

Five local COVID patients remain in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark(LGL)counties as of their Wednesday update. It's beenstablefor more than two weeks.

Wastewater levels arestableat sites in the Kingston area, and stable or dropping in LGL, each with data up to Feb. 28. Of the three sites east of Ottawa, only Casselman saw rising levelswithdata up to Feb. 23.