Ottawa COVID-19 hospital, ICU numbers higher than ever as health unit confirms 196 new cases, one death

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) continues to watch the city's COVID-19 incidence and positivity rates climb, as well as hospital admissions, as it reports another local death due to the novel coronavirus and 196 confirmed cases of the illness.

There have now been 470 Ottawa residents that have died because of COVID-19 since March 25, 2020. 

The number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 has jumped from 56 on Tuesday, to 69 on Wednesday, April 7. The number of local COVID-19 patients now in intensive care units is up to 20. That takes those figures higher than they were at their previous highest points in the pandemic. Back on April 29, 2020, 63 people were in hospital with the virus, while 20 were in intensive care on April 14, 2020.

QCH is at 113% capacity. We have 24 admitted COVID-19 patients and 138 patients on isolation precautions – an all-time high for us.

We will be reviewing this decision twice a week and making adjustments – adding or reducing surgeries as our occupancy and staffing permits.

— Queensway Carleton Hospital and Foundation (@QCHOttawa) April 7, 2021

Ottawa's weekly COVID-19 incidence rate is up to 132.1 per 100,000 residents.

The local positivity rate is up a whole percentage point, Wednesday, to 8.8 per cent.

There are 29 healthcare institutions dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks in Ottawa, along with eight schools and one childcare centre. OPH is also monitoring seven community outbreaks — three of which have been linked to restaurants.

OPH says it knows of 1,926 active cases of COVID-19 in the city, but it has recently lost the ability to contact trace for each individual who tests positive for COVID-19 due to the volume of calls that would have to be made and its staff being stretched thin.

There have been 18,632 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city (16,236 resolved) since March of last year.

Ottawa's updated vaccination figures show it received more than 25,000 Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine doses on Sunday, alongside previously reported shipments of AstraZeneca and Moderna. That brings this week's total shipment to 48,740, which pushes the number of vaccines Ottawa's received, to date, to 223,150. OPH says the city has administered 77 per cent of what it has received so far.