Another COVID-19 death in Ottawa as hospitalizations due to the virus climb

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is reporting another local COVID-19-related death, as it sees the number of local patients in hopsital with the virus rise to 32.

Of the residents in hospital with COVID-19, seven are now in need of intensive care.

The latest person to die after a battle with COVID-19 was a resident at St. Vincent Hospital. It's the fourth death at the facility since it declared an outbreak on September 23. In that time, the hospital has dealt with 45 cases of COVID-19 in its staff and 26 in residents.

OPH continues to report 19 virus-related deaths at West End Villa long-term care, one at the Perley Rideau Veterans Health Centre and one at New Edinburgh Square retirement home.

There are 64 institutions included on OPH's outbreak list, as of Thursday.

There have now been 296 deaths due to COVID-19 in Ottawa since March.

OPH is recording its highest single-day jump in new COVID-19 cases, Thursday, with 183.

It says there are now 879 active cases in the community.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have now been 5,153 lab-confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa, with 3,865 of them resolved.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Ottawa's COVID-19 testing backlog was 1,743. The province says it completed more tests in a single day than it ever had on Wednesday, with nearly 48,500.