COVID-19 remains steady 3 years after pandemic began

Recent developments:

• Ottawa's COVID-19 numbers are stable or dropping.
• The EOHU's COVID risk level remains moderate.
• Four more peoplewith COVID have died.

The latest

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) saysCOVID-19 indicators are generally stableat moderate to high levels, which has remained consistentfor most of 2023.

Expertsrecommendpeople wear masks indoorsand, in Ontario, in the daysafter having COVID symptoms. Staying home when sickandstaying up to date with COVIDvaccinescan alsohelp protect vulnerable people.

Non-COVID respiratoryvirus levels are generally low and/or seasonal.

Wastewater

Data from the research teamshows the average coronavirus wastewater level is slowlydropping this month as of the most recent data on March 12.

The average is at its lowest point of 2023. OPH still considers this level to be high.

Hospitals

The number of patients with COVID-19 in local hospitals remains relatively stable at 17. That's lower than most of the second half of2022.

Two patients are in intensive care.

A separate countthat includespatientswho testedpositive for COVIDafter being admitted for other reasons, those admitted for lingering COVIDcomplications, and thosetransferred from other health units also remains stable.

Tests, outbreaks and deaths

Ottawa has 17active COVID outbreaks, which has beendropping this month. The number wasconsidered high in last week's OPH update.

The city'sCOVID-19 test positivity rate has remainedbetween 11 and 13 per cent since the start of February, which OPH calls moderate.

OPH has reported 109more COVID cases since Friday and thedeaths of two people with COVID, one in their 70s and one age 90 or above.

So far,1,027Ottawa residents have died with COVID as a contributing or underlying factor. Thirty-sixof those people have died this year.

Vaccines

Twenty-eightper cent of Ottawans age five and older have had a COVID vaccine dose within the last six months, as is generally recommended,with older age groups having higher rates.

That translates to about 750,000 people in that age range without the recommended vaccine protection.It does not factor inimmunity from getting COVID.

About 350 more Ottawa residents got a vaccine dose in the last week, according to OPH.

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 stablein the Kingston areaand across the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU).They'reotherwise out of date or unavailable outside of Ottawa.

TheEOHU'sCOVID risk levelremains moderate, with a stable test positivity average. Average test positivity drops to about eight per cent in the Kingston area, its lowest levelof 2023.

The health unit for Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties won't provide an update this week.

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Hospitalizations and deaths

Eastern Ontario communities outsideOttawa report about 35COVID-19 hospitalizations, with seven patients in intensive care. Nearly half of those two totals are in the EOHU.

That regional countdoesn'tincludeHastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health,which has a different counting method. Its local hospitalization count is stable.

Western Quebec has 67COVID hospital patients. Twoof them arein intensive care.

Two more people who had COVID have died in the Kingston area. It has reported 117 COVID deaths, 15 of them this year.

Vaccines

The Kingston area's health unit says 28 per cent of its population age five and up have had a COVID vaccine 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, according to the province.