Ottawa COVID-19 key indicators drop despite positivity rate climbing to 11.7 per cent

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is reporting drops in a few key indicators of community COVID-19 spread, even though the city's positivity rate continues to rise.

OPH is confirming another COVID-19 related death in the city, Wednesday, April 21, as well as 181 new cases of the virus. The city's pandemic death toll is now up to 484.

Residents being tested for COVID-19 are seeing positive results 11.7 per cent of the time.

But despite that high positivity rate, the weekly incidence rate is down for the fourth straight day, to 190.4 per 100,000 residents. It's a long way from what is considered a sustainable level by OPH (under 40 per 100,000), but it's an improvement from the 222 per 100,000 reported last Saturday.

Local COVID-19 hospitalization numbers are also down on Wednesday, from a record 136 patients and 34 in intensive care on Tuesday, to 118 and 27 in ICU.

There are still 17 COVID-19 outbreaks ongoing at Ottawa healthcare institutions, four in childcare settings and 11 linked to schools. OPH is also tracking 19 community outbreaks, mainly stemming from a variety of workplaces. 

The City of Ottawa has received another 25,740 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses this week, bringing its total to 305,130 to date. OPH says 85 per cent of received vaccine doses have been administered as of Wednesday.

There have been 22,405 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa (18,682 resolved) since March of 2020.

OPH knows of 3,239 active cases of the novel coronavirus in the community.

Ontario is reporting 4,212 new cases of COVID-19, Wednesday, including 22 in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit's area, 13 in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark district and none in Renfrew County and district.