covid-19, the flu and other respiratory illnesses continued their spread in the ottawa region over the holiday season.
in a weekly report issued wednesday, ottawa public health counted 245 new cases of covid-19 in the seven days ending jan. 1.
there had been 10 new deaths in the two weeks since the previous report on dec. 20.
those additions brought the total number of cases to 96,941 since the pandemic began in 2020, along with 1,198 covid-related deaths.
the agency also reported 23 new outbreaks at institutional settings. there are 23 ongoing outbreaks in those facilities.
the oph report identified a seven-day average of 51 people in hospital due to covid-19 as of jan. 1, with four of them in intensive care units.
meanwhile, 17 people had been hospitalized for influenza in the seven days leading up to dec. 30. there were six hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus, or rsv, for a “season total” of 149.
per cent positivity — the percentage of people among those tested who were confirmed to have a particular illness — was 16.3 for influenza (high, but lower than the previous report, according to oph); 21.5 for covid-19 (very high and an increase from the previous report); and 5.3 for rsv (moderate, about level with the previous report.)
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