COVID-19 in Ottawa: Fast Facts for June 8, 2021 - CTV Edmonton

OTTAWA -- Good morning. Here is the latest news on COVID-19 and its impact on Ottawa.

Fast Facts:

• Outdoor dining returns to Ottawa on Friday when the province officially moves into Step 1 of its reopening plan.
• Mayor Jim Watson is calling on the province to give Ottawa another 40,000 COVID-19 vaccines to help meet the demand for appointments in the city.
• Ottawa Public Health reported its lowest daily COVID-19 case count so far this year on Monday.
• Police checkpoints on the bridges between Gatineau and Ottawa will remain in place this weekend despite the move to reopen.
• Ottawa set a new record for COVID-19 vaccine doses in arms last week with more than 74,000 shots administered.

COVID-19 by the numbers in Ottawa (Ottawa Public Health data):

• New COVID-19 cases: 19 cases on Monday
• Total COVID-19 cases: 27,320
• COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days):  29.1
• Positivity rate in Ottawa: 3.3 per cent (May 31 to June 6)
• Reproduction Number: 0.93 (seven day average)

Testing:

Who should get a test?

Ottawa Public Health says you can get a COVID-19 test at an assessment centre, care clinic, or community testing site if any of the following apply to you:

• You are showing COVID-19 symptoms;
• You have been exposed to a confirmed case of the virus, as informed by Ottawa Public Health or exposure notification through the COVID Alert app;
• You are a resident or work in a setting that has a COVID-19 outbreak, as identified and informed by Ottawa Public Health;
• You are a resident, a worker or a visitor to long-term care, retirement homes, homeless shelters or other congregate settings (for example: group homes, community supported living, disability-specific communities or congregate settings, short-term rehab, hospices and other shelters);
• You are a person who identifies as First Nations, Inuit or Métis;
• You are a person travelling to work in a remote First Nations, Inuit or Métis community;
• You received a preliminary positive result through rapid testing;
• You require testing 72 hours before a scheduled (non-urgent or emergent) surgery (as recommended by your health care provider);
• You are a patient and/or their 1 accompanying escort tra­velling out of country for medical treatment;
• You are an international student that has passed their 14-day quarantine period;
• You are a farm worker;
• You are an educator who cannot access pharmacy-testing; or
• You are in a targeted testing group as outlined in guidance from the Chief Medical Officer of Health.

Where to get tested for COVID-19 in Ottawa:

There are several sites for COVID-19 testing in Ottawa. To book an appointment, visit https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/shared-content/assessment-centres.aspx

• The Brewer Ottawa Hospital/CHEO Assessment Centre: Open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• COVID-19 Drive-Thru Assessment Centre at 300 Coventry Road: Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• The Moodie Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 
• The Heron Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• The Ray Friel Care and Testing Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• North Grenville COVID-19 Assessment Centre (Kemptville) – 15 Campus Drive: Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Centretown Community Health Centre: Open Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Sandy Hill Community Health Centre: Open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 pm.
• Somerset West Community Health Centre: Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday

COVID-19 screening tool:

The COVID-19 screening tool for students heading back to in-person classes can be found here.

Symptoms:

Classic Symptoms: fever, new or worsening cough, shortness of breath

Other symptoms: sore throat, difficulty swallowing, new loss of taste or smell, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, pneumonia, new or unexplained runny nose or nasal congestion

Less common symptoms: unexplained fatigue, muscle aches, headache, delirium, chills, red/inflamed eyes, croup

Businesses in Ottawa that have been closed since April will be able to reopen Friday as Ontario moves to Step 1 of its reopening plan on Friday.

The move comes a few days earlier than initially predicted. The provincial government previously said Step 1 would begin the week of June 14.

Outdoor gathering limits will increase to 10 people and patios can reopen with a limit of four people per table and tables must be spaced two metres apart. Restaurants can also return to their normal hours of liquor service, Monday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 2 a.m., according to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. In-person retail shopping also returns with strict capacity limits.

However, the office of the solicitor general says the order that restricts non-essential travel into Ontario from Quebec and Manitoba will remain in effect until June 16. A spokesperson said the emergency order could also be extended.

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson says he wants the province to send Ottawa another 40,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to help meet demand for first and second dose appointments in the city.

In a letter to Premier Doug Ford, Watson said the provincial government's move to rapidly expand eligibility has created challenges for the city's ability to provide appointments for residents who want to be vaccinated.

The province expanded eligibility to book earlier second dose appointments at 8 a.m. Monday for anyone 70 or older or for anyone who had received their first dose on or before April 18. The expanded eligibility "overloaded" the provincial system's ability to book appointments for residents of Ottawa Monday morning, according to a memo from the city's vaccination task force.

In a PSA Monday afternoon, the city urged residents who were unable to book appointments Monday morning using the provincial system to keep trying, as appointments may become available due to cancellations or changes in scheduling.

Ottawa Public Health said Monday that 19 more people in Ottawa  tested positive for COVID-19, the lowest daily increase since late December, 2020. Three more residents of Ottawa have died due to COVID-19.

Across Ontario, health officials reported 525 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily figure since Sept. 27, 2020.

Public Health Ontario also reported no new cases in any other health unit across eastern Ontario and removed one case from the total for the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health unit.

Ottawa Public Health's COVID-19 dashboard shows 27,320 total cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Ottawa since March 11, 2020 and 582 residents of Ottawa have died.

As case counts decline, several monitoring indicators are also showing signs of improvement. The number of active cases is below 500 for the first time since February, the weekly per capita incidence rate is below 30 and the testing positivity rate is down. The number of people in hospitals held steady on Monday, but is down overall from the beginning of the month.

Ottawa Public Health is reporting a new record for shots in arms in Ottawa.

According to data from the health unit's COVID-19 vaccination dashboard, 74,179 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Ottawa between May 30 and June 5, surpassing the previous record of 67,393 doses set during the week of May 16.

Local clinics and pharmacies administered 56,672 first doses and 17,507 second doses of vaccine last week, largely using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

June 5 was also the busiest day for vaccinations in Ottawa on record since the rollout began with 15,456 doses administered.

To date, 599,570 residents of Ottawa 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 70,208 residents have had two. The vaccination coverage accounts for 57 per cent of Ottawa's total population of just over 1.05 million.

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COVID-19 in Ottawa: Fast Facts for June 8, 2021 - CTV Edmonton
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