New cases dip to 58 as health minister praises Ottawa

A day after receiving praise from Ontario's health minister for its progress in curbing the spread of COVID-19, Ottawa has logged one of its lowest daily case counts of the month.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) reported 58 new cases Tuesday, while marking 65 more resolved. OPH is not reporting any additional deaths linked to the illness.

Those58 new cases make up just seven per cent of the 827 reported across the province Tuesday, more or less in line with the city's share of the provincial population.

That's a vast improvement over late summer, when the city wasregularly logging two or three times that number.

About 60 per cent of Tuesday's new cases are people under the age of 40, reversing a trend that lasted several days.

Asked on Monday whenOttawa mightbe able to roll back the modified Stage 2 rules currently in place, OntarioHealth Minister Christine Elliott said the city is doing very well, but it's too early to say whether the restrictions will be eased early next month as hoped.

Since the pandemic began, 6,694 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Ottawa, including706 known active cases, 5,671 resolved cases and 317 deaths.

Forty-four patients are currently in hospital receiving treatment for COVID-19, four in intensive care.

OPH is currently learning of positive testswithin 48 hours75 per cent of the time, and more than 800 tests are waiting more than 24 hours to be processedat local labs, according to the most recent data available.

There are no new outbreaks to report at local schools or hospitals, and the single case causing an outbreak at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre has not spread within the jail, according to OPH.

Quebec is reporting one more death in the Outaouais, that region's sixth in as many days.