Ottawa’s ICU ventilator bed occupancy sees sharp uptick in last 24 hours

In the last 24 hours, Ottawa's ICU bed occupancy has seen a steep incline while new COVID-19 case numbers have also been rising up. However, hospitalizations, the number of ICU patients (without a ventilator) and the positivity rates are all on their way down. 

According to Ottawa Public Health’s Friday report, the city is reporting 206 new cases — that’s up from Thursday’s 118. ICU ventilator beds, too, have seen a spike to 50 per cent occupancy, compared to the 39 per cent that was reported the day before.

This brings Ottawa’s total case count since the pandemic started to 24,188.

Hospitalizations, however, have fallen to 118 from 121 — that’s about a 2.5 per cent dip in one day.

ICUs, too, are seeing a slip in numbers to 29 from Thursday’s 35 — about a 17 per cent decrease since Thursday.

The positive rate has also seen a dramatic dip to 7.6 per cent in Ottawa — that’s down from the 9.9 per cent reported on Thursday.

The incidence rate has declined to 127.7 per 100,000 from the 131 per 100,000 reported on Thursday.

OPH is also reporting one new death, bringing the local death toll to 504.

ICU beds have also seen a two per cent increase since yesterday, but acute beds experienced a modest one per cent decrease.

Resolved cases have increase by 266 since Thursday, bringing the total number of cleared cases to 21,596. That means about 89 per cent of cases have cleared since the start of the pandemic.

Only two new outbreaks have been declared at healthcare institutions, bringing the current total of ongoing outbreaks to 19.

No new outbreaks have been reported at childcare centres, schools or in the community, keeping the total of ongoing outbreaks to eight and 14, respectively.

Over the past week, 1,347 new cases combined have been reported in the city.

The provincial government has 27 new cases recorded for the Eastern Ontario Health Region — up from yesterday’s 16.

The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit dipped in its numbers, dropping to four from 10.

And the Renfrew County and District Health Unit also saw a fall in numbers to 5, from 12.

Ontario is on its sixth day of reporting new case numbers below 4,000. According to the Ontario government, 3,887 new cases of the virus were recorded Friday — that’s slightly up from the previous day’s 3,871.

Of the new cases, 148 were among kids ages nine to 13; 143 were among teens ages 14 to 17; and 124 were among children aged four to eight.

This brings the province’s total number of cases since the pandemic started to 463,364.

Since Thursday, 21 more deaths have been added to the provincial tally, bringing that up to 8,050.

However, 47 fewer people are in hospital, bringing the current total down to 2,201.

There is also one less person in the ICU — total now at 883 — but 12 more people on a ventilator (total now at 632).

The number of U.K. variants in Ontario has also gone up to 3,016, from 2,589 from the day before.

There is also more of the South African variants as the government reports 31 new cases on Friday, up from the 23 on Thursday.

As for the Brazilian variant, recorded cases have seen a 144 increase, compared to the 96 case count reported from the day before.

Since Thursday, the Ontario government says it has processed 53,074 tests.

Of those tests, 7.4 per cent were positive — that’s down from the 7.6 per cent from the day before.