Ottawa Public Health hesitates to declare city has reached peak

Ottawa's top doctor is reluctant to declare the city has reached a peak in COVID-19 cases because people continue to test positive for the respiratory illness.

On Monday, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) announced the city has 54 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths linked to the respiratory illness, even as provincial officials suggestedthe outbreak may have peaked in Ontario.

The city now has 857 cases, and the death toll has climbed to 25.

We don't have a lot of evidence of a peak yet in Ottawa.- Dr. Vera Etches

Vera Etches, Ottawa's medical officer of health, said one promising sign is that the city's hospitalization rate remains "stable," including those requiringintensive care.

Still, with the numberof confirmed cases continuing to climb, Etches didn't want to say the worst is behind us.

"We don't have a lot of evidence of a peak yet in Ottawa," she said.

According to documents provided by Ontario's dedicated COVID-19 task force Monday, community spread of the novel coronavirus in Ontario appears to have peaked earlier than expected; however, physical distancing measures must be maintained to ensure the number of cases remainsmanageable.

Premier Doug Ford said Ontario is "not out of the woods yet."

So far 359 people have recovered in Ottawa, 21 more than Sunday. Thenumber of people in hospital has held steady at 37.

The wider region of eastern Ontario and western Quebecnow has more than 1,520 confirmed cases and more than 60 deaths,37of them in in Leeds, Grenville and Lanarkcounties.

Confirmed cases represent only a fraction of the actual number because of limited testing, though testing criteria expanded last weekin Ontario.

The total number of cases expected during this wave of the outbreak is "now likely less than 20,000," according to the province's dedicated COVID-19 task force but that's only if physical distancing and other emergency measures remain in place.

No peak yet in Ottawa, though hospitalizations stable, public health agency say

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Vera Etches, Ottawas chief medical officer of health, says theres limited evidence for a peak in COVID-19 cases in the city, though the rate of hospitalizations is not increasing.

There are now nearly 11,200 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the province.