OTTAWA —
Ottawa Public Health is reporting 55 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19 and one more person has died.
The new figures Monday bring the city’s totals to 14,404 cases and 437 deaths since the pandemic began.
Ottawa Public Health data show COVID-19 trends have been on the rise in Ottawa in the past week. The weekly incidence rate per 100,000 residents has gone up, as has the testing positivity rate. While figures currently remain in the “Orange-Restrict” level, Ottawa is now closer to “Red-Control” than it is to “Yellow-Protect”.
The provincial government reported 1,058 new cases reported across Ontario on Monday. Ontario also reported 11 new COVID-19 related deaths and 1,083 newly resolved cases. Locally, the province added 51 new cases of COVID-19. Figures from OPH often differ from those provided by the province due to different data collection times.
No new cases of any variants of concern were confirmed in Ottawa on Monday. To date, Ontario has confirmed eight cases of the B.1.1.7 (UK) variant and one case of the B.1.351 (South Africa) variant in Ottawa.
OTTAWA’S COVID-19 KEY STATISTICS
Ottawa is in “Orange-Restrict” status under Ontario’s COVID-19 framework.
Ottawa Public Health data:
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 37.3 (up from 36.9 on Sunday)
Positivity rate in Ottawa: 2.3 per cent (Feb. 15-21)
Reproduction number: 1.15 (seven day average)
Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.
The Orange-Restrict category of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework includes a weekly rate of cases per 100,000 between 25 to 39.9, a percent positivity of 1.3 to 2.4 per cent, and a reproduction number of approximately 1 to 1.1.
On Feb. 15, OPH reported a rate per 100,000 of 28.5 cases, a testing positivity rate of 1.6 per cent, and a reproduction number of 1.00
VACCINES IN OTTAWA
As of Feb. 22
Vaccine doses administered in Ottawa (first and second shots): 46,559*
COVID-19 doses received (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna): 48,460
*OPH says staff were able to extract additional doses out of several vials, which were given to residents. In a statement on its dashboard, OPH said, “Vaccine inventory is based on an expected 5 dose per vial supply. Occasionally, an additional dose (6th dose) is successfully extracted and administered to clients.”
ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA
The number of people in Ottawa with known active cases of COVID-19 rose by one on Monday to 477.
OPH says 53 more people have seen their cases of COVID-19 resolve. Of the 14,404 total cases seen in Ottawa since the start of the pandemic, 13,490 are now considered resolved.
The number of active cases is the number of total cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is consdered resolved 14 after known symptom onset or positive test result.
HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA
There are currently 22 people in Ottawa hospitals with COVID-19 complications. Two more people have been admitted to the intensive care unit and there are now six people in ICU.
Of the people in hospital, two are under 10 years old, one is in their 30s, three are in their 40s (two are in the ICU), two are in their 50s, two are in their 60s, four are in their 70s (two are in the ICU), seven are in their 80s (two are in the ICU), and one is 90 or older.
COVID-19 TESTING
Ontario health officials say 31,163 COVID-19 tests were completed across Ontario on Sunday and 11,883 tests remain under investigation.
On Monday, the Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce said 1,175 swabs were processed at assessment centres in Ottawa on Feb. 21 and 2,460 lab tests were performed.
The average turnaround from the time the swab is taken at the testing site to the result is 22 hours.
COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY
0-9 years old: Nine new cases (1,069 total cases)
10-19 years-old: Six new case (1,781 total cases)
20-29 years-old: 12 new cases (3,104 total cases)
30-39 years-old: 13 new cases (2,014 total cases)
40-49 years-old: Eight new cases (1,866 total cases)
50-59 years-old: Four new cases (1,734 total cases)
60-69-years-old: Three new case (1,047 total cases)
70-79 years-old: Zero new cases (636 total cases)
80-89 years-old: One new case (697 total cases)
90+ years old: Zero new cases (453 total cases)
Unknown: One case reassigned (3 cases total)
COVID-19 ACROSS THE REGION
Eastern Ontario Health Unit: Five new cases
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health: One new case
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: Zero new cases
Renfrew County and District Health Unit: Two new cases
CISSS de l’Outaouais (Gatineau and western Quebec): 30 new cases
INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS
Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 27 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.
Outbreaks are responsible for 92 current active cases of COVID-19.
An outbreak at Charles H. Hulse Public School has ended. There were three student cases total during the outbreak. An outbreak at the Edinburgh Retirement Residence ended with a single staff case.
There are four active community outbreaks: two are linked to health workplaces, one is linked to a corporate/office setting, and one is linked to a construction workplace.
The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Centre educatif La Clementine (École Marie-Curie)
CityView – Home Child Care – 32814
CityView – Home Child Care – 32912
École secondaire catholique Franco-Cité
Mothercraft Ottawa – Home Child Care – 33056
St. Patrick’s High School
The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Carlingwood Retirement
Centre D’Acceuil Champlain
Extendicare Starwood
Extendicare West End Villa
Garry J. Armstrong long-term care home
Governor’s Walk Retirement
Group Home – 32432
Group Home – 32782
Maison Acceuil Sagesse
Manoir Marochel
Montfort Long-term Care Centre
Peter D. Clark
Rockcliffe Retirement Residence
Shelter – 28778
Shelter – 29677
Shelter – 29770
Shelter – 29860
Supported Independent Living – 32891
The Ottawa Hospital – Civic Campus – A4 (Medicine)/A5/B5/Ama
The Ottawa Hospital – General Campus – Single Unit 7Ncc/Ccu
Villa Marconi
A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, a single confirmed, symptomatic case in a staff member, home daycare provider, or child triggers an outbreak.
Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).
Two staff or patient cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a specified hospital unit within a 14-day period where both cases could have reasonably acquired their infection in hospital is considered an outbreak in a public hospital.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
