OTTAWA —
Several weekly COVID-19 trends in Ottawa are showing signs of improvement following a third straight day of Ottawa Public Health reporting fewer than 100 new cases of COVID-19 each day.
Ottawa Public Health is reporting 67 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19 and two more people have died.
OPH reported 56 new cases of COVID-19 in the city on Tuesday and 85 on Monday and also reported two new deaths each day.
Ontario health officials reported 2,655 new cases of COVID-19 reported provincewide on Wednesday. Ontario also reported 89 new deaths and 3,714 resolved cases on Wednesday.
According to Ottawa Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, there have been 12,494 total lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa since the pandemic began and 409 residents have died.
The weekly trends of new cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days has dropped below 80, and the estimated reproduction rate–the number of additional people each person with the virus infects–has also plummeted. The testing positivity rate is below 4 per cent for the first time since early January.
However, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 complications is now above 40.
OTTAWA’S COVID-19 KEY STATISTICS
A province-wide lockdown went into effect on Dec. 26, 2020. Ottawa Public Health moved Ottawa into its red zone in early January.
A provincial stay-at-home order has been in effect since Jan. 14, 2021.
Ottawa Public Health data:
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 72.9 cases
Positivity rate in Ottawa: 3.5 per cent (Jan. 13 – Jan. 19)
Reproduction number: 0.72 (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.
VACCINES
Doses administered in Ottawa (first and second shots): 21,951
Doses received in Ottawa: 25,350
Ottawa Public Health says the city received 2,925 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Jan. 18.
ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA
The number of people in Ottawa with known active cases of COVID-19 has dropped for the fourth day in a row. It now stands at 1,057, down from 1,137 on Tuesday. The number of active cases peaked at 1,286 on Saturday.
OPH says 145 more cases of COVID-19 in the city have resolved, bringing Ottawa’s total number of resolved cases to 11,028.
The number of active cases is the number of total laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is considered resolved 14 days after known symptom onset or positive test result.
HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA
There are now 42 people in Ottawa hospitals with COVID-19 complications, the highest figure so far in 2021. Eight people are in the intensive care unit.
Of the people in hospital, one is 10 to 19 years old (this person is in the ICU), one is in their 30s (this person is in the ICU), one is in their 40s, seven are in their 50s (two are in the ICU), eight are in their 60s (two are in the ICU), seven are in their 70s (two are in the ICU), 10 are in their 80s, and seven are 90 or older.
TESTING
Ontario health officials say 54,307 COVID-19 tests were performed across Ontario on Tuesday and there are 48,963 tests still under investigation.
Local testing information from the Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce is due this afternoon.
CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY
Here is a breakdown of all known COVID-19 cases in Ottawa by age category:
0-9 years old: 2 new cases (890 total cases)
10-19 years-old: 4 new cases (1,576 total cases)
20-29 years-old: 18 new cases (2,656 total cases)
30-39 years-old: 14 new cases (1,730 total cases)
40-49 years-old: 10 new cases (1,637 total cases)
50-59 years-old: 11 new cases (1,480 total cases)
60-69-years-old: 4 new cases (901 total cases)
70-79 years-old: 2 new cases (564 total cases)
80-89 years-old: 2 new cases (634 total cases)
90+ years old: 0 new cases (423 total cases)
Unknown: 0 new cases (3 cases total)
CASES OF COVID-19 AROUND THE REGION
Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 16 new cases
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health: 2 new cases
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health: 2 new cases
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit: 2 new cases
Renfrew County and District Health Unit: 0 new cases
Outaouais Region: 21 new cases
INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS
Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 38 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.
Outbreaks at the Alta Vista Manor and Redwoods retirement homes have ended. An outbreak at a local group home has also ended.
New outbreaks were declared at a Wee Watch home childcare location in Nepean, the Stirling Park retirement home and the Ravines Indpendent Living home.
There are six active community outbreaks. An outbreak at a multi-unit dwelling has ended.
Three are linked to health workplaces, one is linked to an office workplace, one is linked to a distribution centre, and one is linked to a services workplace
The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Andrew Fleck Children’s Services – Home Child Care – 29101
Greenboro Children’s Centre
Montessori by Brightpath
Ruddy Family Y Child Care
Services à l’enfance Grandir Ensemble – La Maisonée – 28627
Wee Watch Nepean home childcare – 29084 (NEW)
The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Besserer Place
Centre D’Accueil Champlain
Colonel By Retirement Home
Extendicare Laurier Manor
Extendicare Medex
Extendicare New Orchard Lodge
Extendicare West End Villa
Garry J. Armstrong long-term care home
Grace Manor Long-term Care Home
Granite Ridge long-term care home
Group Home – 28608
Group Home – 28740
Group Home – 29045
Group Home – 29049
Group Home – 29052
Hillel Lodge
Madonna Care Community
Montfort Long-term Care Centre
Oakpark Retirement Community
Park Place
Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre
Peter D. Clark long-term care home
Shelter – 28365
Sisters of Charity Couvent Mont Saint-Joseph
St. Patrick’s Home
Stirling Park Retirement Community (NEW)
Supported Independent Living – 28110
Supported Independent Living – 29100
The Ravines Independent Living (NEW)
Valley Stream Retirement Residence
Villa Marconi
Villagia in the Glebe Retirement Residence
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).
How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.
New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.
“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.
Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.
It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.
Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.
Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.
The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.
The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Patients who are older, don’t speak English, and don’t have a high school education are more likely to experience harm during a hospital stay in Canada, according to new research.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information measured preventableharmful events from 2023 to 2024, such as bed sores and medication errors,experienced by patients who received acute care in hospital.
The research published Thursday shows patients who don’t speak English or French are 30 per cent more likely to experience harm. Patients without a high school education are 20 per cent more likely to endure harm compared to those with higher education levels.
The report also found that patients 85 and older are five times more likely to experience harm during a hospital stay compared to those under 20.
“The goal of this report is to get folks thinking about equity as being a key dimension of the patient safety effort within a hospital,” says Dana Riley, an author of the report and a program lead on CIHI’s population health team.
When a health-care provider and a patient don’t speak the same language, that can result in the administration of a wrong test or procedure, research shows. Similarly, Riley says a lower level of education is associated with a lower level of health literacy, which can result in increased vulnerability to communication errors.
“It’s fairly costly to the patient and it’s costly to the system,” says Riley, noting the average hospital stay for a patient who experiences harm is four times more expensive than the cost of a hospital stay without a harmful event – $42,558 compared to $9,072.
“I think there are a variety of different reasons why we might start to think about patient safety, think about equity, as key interconnected dimensions of health-care quality,” says Riley.
The analysis doesn’t include data on racialized patients because Riley says pan-Canadian data was not available for their research. Data from Quebec and some mental health patients was also excluded due to differences in data collection.
Efforts to reduce patient injuries at one Ontario hospital network appears to have resulted in less harm. Patient falls at Mackenzie Health causing injury are down 40 per cent, pressure injuries have decreased 51 per cent, and central line-associated bloodstream infections, such as IV therapy, have been reduced 34 per cent.
The hospital created a “zero harm” plan in 2019 to reduce errors after a hospital survey revealed low safety scores. They integrated principles used in aviation and nuclear industries, which prioritize safety in complex high-risk environments.
“The premise is first driven by a cultural shift where people feel comfortable actually calling out these events,” says Mackenzie Health President and Chief Executive Officer Altaf Stationwala.
They introduced harm reduction training and daily meetings to discuss risks in the hospital. Mackenzie partnered with virtual interpreters that speak 240 languages and understand medical jargon. Geriatric care nurses serve the nearly 70 per cent of patients over the age of 75, and staff are encouraged to communicate as frequently as possible, and in plain language, says Stationwala.
“What we do in health care is we take control away from patients and families, and what we know is we need to empower patients and families and that ultimately results in better health care.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
CALGARY – Alberta’s health minister says a new agency responsible for primary health care should be up and running by next month.
Adriana LaGrange says Primary Care Alberta will work to improve Albertans’ access to primary care providers like family doctors or nurse practitioners, create new models of primary care and increase access to after-hours care through virtual means.
Her announcement comes as the provincial government continues to divide Alberta Health Services into four new agencies.
LaGrange says Alberta Health Services hasn’t been able to focus on primary health care, and has been missing system oversight.
The Alberta government’s dismantling of the health agency is expected to include two more organizations responsible for hospital care and continuing care.
Another new agency, Recovery Alberta, recently took over the mental health and addictions portfolio of Alberta Health Services.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.
