Ottawa COVID-19 hospitalizations climb to 131; four new community outbreaks reported

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is reporting a new record high for local COVID-19 hospitalizations, while the number of community outbreaks continues to grow.

As of Monday, April 19, there are 131 people in Ottawa hospitals with COVID-19. There are also more patients in local intensive care units with the novel coronavirus than there ever have been, as OPH reports 34.

Acute care bed capacity within Ottawa's hospital system is at 89 per cent, while ICU capacity is at 67 per cent with 36 per cent of ICU ventilator beds full.

OPH is reporting 203 new cases of COVID-19 in the city, Monday, bringing the pandemic total to 22,038 (18,144 resolved). There have been 2,175 cases confirmed locally in the last week.

No new deaths keeps the city's pandemic death toll at 482.

OPH is tracking four new community outbreaks of COVID-19, Monday. There are currently 15 ongoing across the city. Meanwhile, there continue to be 16 outbreaks at healthcare institutions, three at local childcare centres and nine at schools.

The health unit says it knows of 3,412 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa at the moment.

The weekly COVID-19 incidence rate is down for the second straight day, Monday. It was at 222.4 per 100,000 residents on Saturday, and fell to 217.8 per 100,000 on Sunday before dropping to 206.2 per 100,000 residents on Monday. The weekly incidence rate has been outlined as a key indicator of community transmission by OPH. The local positivity rate, however, has risen to 10.9 per cent.

OPH says 89 per cent of the 279,390 COVID-19 vaccine doses that the city has received have been administered. There's been no word on how many new doses are expected this week. Ottawa received 38,270 three weeks ago, 48,740 two weeks ago and 56,240 last week.

Ontario is reporting 4,447 new cases of COVID-19, Monday, including 32 in the Eastern Ontario Health Unit's area, 12 in the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark district and 11 in Renfrew County and district.