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Ottawa’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Vera Etches, said Thursday that the highly contagious Delta variant was beginning to spread in the Ottawa area, changing the nature of the pandemic.
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In a briefing to the Ottawa Board of Health, Etches said Delta has made up 60 per cent of all cases over the last month, and 90 per cent of all cases last week. The Delta variant is also showing up in the city’s waste water samples.
“The Delta variant of COVID-19 is driving an increase in Ontario and in Ottawa,” she said.
That risk shows how important is it is for the city to increase the number of people vaccinated against COVID-19, she said. About 5,000 people a week are showing up at clinics to receive their first shot but at that rate, the city won’t reach the 90 per cent needed for herd immunity until the end of October.
Vaccinations do offer protection, she said, with unvaccinated people 20 times more likely to become infected. Between July 4 and Aug. 7, Ottawa Public Health data shows unvaccinated people account for 67 infections per 100,000 people. For the fully vaccinated, the rate is three per 100,000.
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Hospitalizations remain “very, very low” in the city, she said, but she cautioned that the experience in other jurisdictions show that Delta can lead to exponential growth.
With some schools already in session and most opening in two weeks, Etches said that OPH is still advising that all students from kindergarten through to Grade 12 wear masks.
“The overall approach is caution. I know some people think it’s too cautious, but I want to make sure that children in school have all the protection they can have,” she said.
OPH has nurses in schools assessing the pandemic plans and will have mobile clinics to provide information to parents and older students about vaccinations and where to get the shot.
OPH will continue contact tracing, with the added task of determining who is vaccinated and who is not.
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“That will make a difference in terms of who needs to self isolate,” she said.
It’s also expanding its home testing program, used last year with special needs classes and over the summer at youth camps. The take-home kits will provide information on infections sooner.
“It’s important to make sure that if you have even one symptom that may be COVID, and that you get the testing.”
Ottawa Public Health reported 19 new cases and no new deaths on Thursday.
There are three people in hospital, with just one in intensive care.
OPH knows of 128 active cases.
The new case counts brings the total number of cases since the pandemic began to 28,049 with 27,328 considered resolved. The number of deaths remains at 593.
An outbreak at the Grandir ensemble garderie la Maisonnée child care centre that began on Aug. 3 was declared closed Wednesday. There remains one open outbreak in the city, at the St. Anthony’s Children’s Centre, involving four children and a staff member.
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As of Wednesday, OPH reported 77 per cent of all Ottawans over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated.
The rolling average of cases per 100,000 population is 12.2, while the per cent positivity in testing is 1.5. The city’s reproductive number, Rt, number stands at 1.02. Any number above 1.0 indicates the infections are increasing.
In capital-area health units: Leeds Grenville reported one new case, while there were no new cases reported in both Eastern Ontario Health and Renfrew County. Kingston health removed two cases from its total after a data adjustment.
Meanwhile, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario is making vaccines mandatory for all staff, volunteers and students.
“Imagine bringing a sick child to CHEO and all of the worries already on a parent or caregiver’s mind,” the hospital’s CEO, Alex Munter, tweeted Thursday afternoon. “They shouldn’t also have to worry about the vaccine status of our staff when they access care. This policy is one additional layer of protection for kids+families.”
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CHEO joins Toronto Sick Kids and Holland Bloorview hospitals in adopting a mandatory vaccine policy, noting that 70 per cent of their patients under younger than 12 and ineligible for a vaccine.
Latest COVID-19 news in Ontario
Ontario reported 17 new COVID-19 deaths on Thursday and 531 new cases, jumping above the 500 mark for the first time since Monday. Of those, 456 people are unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated while 75 of the new cases involve fully vaccinated people.
The new cases bring the province’s total to 557,451 cases, of which 543,760 have been resolved.
There were 17 new deaths reported, although 15 of the deaths occurred more than two months ago and “were updated based on data cleaning.” The pandemic has claimed 9,448 lives.
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There are 176 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals, just 13 of whom are fully vaccinated. The number of patients in intensive care was not available Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the City of Toronto and its public transit agency are mandating COVID-19 vaccination for all of their employees.
Mayor John Tory said Thursday that all city staff will be required to provide proof of their vaccination status by Sept. 13. He said employees who do not disclose their vaccination status by that date will be required to attend mandatory education on the benefits of vaccination.
Unvaccinated staff will then need to provide proof of first dose no later than Sept. 30 and proof of a second dose by Oct. 30.
Latest COVID-19 news in Quebec
Quebec reported 436 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the same number as Wednesday.
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No new deaths were reported.
Hospitalizations inched upward and are now at 91, a six-week high.
The number of people in intensive care dropped by one, to 27
The province reported 42,799 additional vaccine doses were administered over the previous 24 hours.
The province has had 383,191 cases of COVID-19 and 11,266 deaths since the pandemic began.
There were 11 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Outaouais region Thursday. There were no new deaths.
Provincial statistics indicate 60 active cases in the region.
There are no patients with COVID-19 symptoms in the region’s hospitals.
-With files from The Canadian Press
COVID-19: CHEO making vaccines mandatory for all staff, volunteers and students; province reports 531 new cases - Ottawa Citizen
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