Third COVID-19 death reported by OPH; Ottawa cases up to 144

By Mike Vlasveld

Ottawa Public Health (OPH) says another local resident is dead after battling COVID-19 as it focusses on containing the virus inside a handful of local retirement residences.

The third person to die from COVID-19 was residing in the Promenade retirement residence in Orléans — the same facility that reported the city's second overall COVID-19 death on Monday, March 30.

Ottawa's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vera Etches, says the two deaths were a man and woman in their 80s. The city's first coronavirus-related death was reported on March 25 when a man in his 90s passed away. She would not say if the two were married.

“I'm concerned about cases in retirement homes and long-term care homes, because that is a place where [there's] a vulnerable population [and] the nature of the residence is that it's harder to contain the virus in those settings,” said Dr. Etches.

“It's really my top concern,” she said.

Because of a change in provincial rules, any confirmed case of COVID-19 in staff or residents of retirement or long-term care homes must be treated as a respiratory outbreak.

Four retirement homes in Ottawa have at least one positive case of COVID-19:

  • Promenade Retirement Residence (3 residents, including 2 deaths)
  • Maplewood Retirement Community (one resident, one worker)
  • Park Place Retirement Residence (one worker, zero residents)
  • Garden Terrace long-term care residence (one worker, zero residents)

OPH confirmed 14 new cases of COVID-19 in the city, Tuesday, bringing the overall to-date total to 144. Of those, 20 were in hospital with six in intensive care. Eleven of the confirmed positive cases had since recovered.

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