2023's parting gift is a slight easing of some viral data

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 numbersare generally dropping, but stillhigh.
• Fluactivity ishigh and RSV activity is moderate.
• Twenty more COVID deaths have been reported locally.
• Nearly 450 locals with COVID died in 2023, the fewest of the four pandemic years.

The latest

As Ottawa remains deep in both the holiday season and the respiratory virus danger zone, trends are still generally high but the end of 2023 did bring a bit of good news.

According to the latest numbers, COVIDrates in Ottawaare still high, but have dropped.Fluactivity also remains high, whilerespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) trends are more moderate.

Ottawa Public Health (OPH)saysthe city's health-care institutions remainat high risk from respiratory illnesses, as they havebeen since the start ofSeptember and are expected to remainuntil at least March.

Expertsrecommendpeople cover coughs;wear masks inside,in crowded places and around high-riskpeople, keephands and often-touched surfaces clean; stay home when sick andkeepup with COVID and flu vaccinesto help protect themselves andother vulnerable people.

The updated Novavax COVID vaccine, which uses proteins instead of mRNA,is now available in Ottawa.

In Ottawa

In the past week, the average number of Ottawa residentsin local hospitals for COVID-19is down to 51. It had generallybeen in and around the 70s since early November.

Aseparate, wider count which includespatientswho testedpositive for COVIDafter being admitted for other reasons, wereadmitted for lingering COVIDcomplications or were transferred from other health unitsis also down.

There were40 new patients in the previous week. OPH seesthis as a moderatenumber, down from very high.

Ottawa's weekly average test positivity rate is about 20 per cent, which is stable andseen as very high.

Theactive COVID outbreak count drops from 33 to 23,with about half inretirement homes. There is still a very highnumber of new outbreaks.

The health unit reported 245more COVID cases in the last weekand 10moreCOVIDdeaths in the last two weeks: three victims each in their 70s, 80s and above 90, plusone in their 60s.

Twenty-one per cent of Ottawa residents have had a COVID vaccine since the latest version was first released in mid-September.These figures don't account for immunity from a recent infection.

Ottawa's average coronavirus wastewater level was last sharedDec. 20, when it was seen asvery high.

Across the region

The Kingston area's health unitsays its COVID and RSV trends are stable and mostly high, while flu trends are stable and more moderate. It has 29 active COVID-19 patients in its hospitals, a number that also includes patients who might live in a different health unit. That is seenas very high and stable.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU)'s big-picture assessment last came Dec. 27, whenits overall risk was seen as high. As of Tuesday its average COVID test positivity was a high, stable 21 per cent, with COVID hospitalizations down to 14.

Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, like Ottawa,gives a weekly COVIDcase hospital average. That has risento 31, which isits highest average since autumn 2022.Itsays 18 per cent of its residents have had a COVID vaccine in the last six months.

The average COVID test positivity in Renfrew County drops to 15 per cent. Itreports a stable seven COVID hospital patients.

Western Quebec has a stable 69hospital patients who have tested positive forCOVID. In the two weeks since its last update, the provincereported sixmore deaths there in the region.

The health unit for Leeds, Grenville and Lanark (LGL) counties reported two more COVID deaths, while there was one more reported in bothRenfrew County and the EOHU.

Data for LGL goes up to Dec. 24, when its trends were generally high.

Fewest annual COVIDdeaths

While data can always change as paperwork is double-checked, and some health authorities still have to report from the final few days of last year, it looks like 2023 had the fewest local COVID deaths of the four pandemic years.

Last year's count sitsaround 440 people. There were about 580 such deaths in 2020, about 500 in 2021 and about 1,100 in 2022.

2023 was also the first year neither Ontario nor Quebec introducedwidespreadpublic health measuresto counter COVID. Some settings, particularly in the health-care sector,brought in changes such as mask requirements at times.

While the World Health Organization said in May 2023 that COVIDno longer qualifies as a global emergency, it continues to be a pandemic.