No slowdown planned yet for pandemic response

Continued fight against COVID-19 drives health unit budget to record

Even as preparations begin for COVID-19 vaccines, Ottawa Public Health says its pandemic response will continue “for the foreseeable future.”

The Ottawa Public Health 2021 draft budget reflects that ongoing need for extra staff for contact tracing, school support and infection prevention and control, among other things, throughout the upcoming year. The health unit's $98.1-million draft budget — the largest in its history — was approved Monday by the city's board of health.

A significant chunk of the budget will cover continuing costs related to COVID-19. Ottawa Public Health spent an additional $13 million in 2020 as part of extraordinary costs related to its pandemic response.

In its 2021 draft budget, OPH included an additional $22.5 million for one-time costs related to the pandemic, a 31-per-cent increase over 2020. That does not include any costs related to a COVID-19 immunization campaign, something that will likely come later. The province has said it will cover all one-time COVID-19 expenses.

“Ottawa Public Health expects the need to sustain the pandemic response for the foreseeable future in light of low population immunity while awaiting a safe and effective vaccine,” Dr. Vera Etches, Ottawa's medical officer of health, wrote in an update to the board.

Etches said more COVID-19 outbreaks and the need for more case management could put pressure on Ottawa Public Health to reduce some essential services or to spend more in 2021. Its draft budget goes before Ottawa council on Dec. 9.

Ottawa Public Health's work to respond to COVID-19 has required it to have staff on call 24/7. It has meant additional staffing for contact tracing of people who test positive for COVID-19 and close contacts. The health unit routinely has 7,500 people or more who are either COVID-19 positive or are close contacts and need to be followed up on.

Ottawa Public Health is also working with long-term care homes, childcare facilities and other congregate settings and providing infection-prevention and control advice and mental wellness support to schools.

Even with the extraordinary one-time funding for COVID-19, OPH has had to shift staff away from core programs and cut back on some services to work on pandemic response. Etches said OPH has resumed some of its emergency dental clinics, which were closed earlier in the pandemic, and is looking at resuming other “crucial services” that have been put on hold. Those also include school immunization programs.

“We have not been able to do immunizations in schools,” she said. “That is something we cannot delay any longer.”

Etches said public health is also concerned about the apparent worsening mental health of some Ottawa residents, resulting from the pandemic.

In surveys done in June and October, about 40 per cent of people reported their emotional health and well-being as poor, around 60 per cent reported feeling lonely and just over 50 per cent said their sense of belonging was weak or somewhat weak.

Ontario is expected to get at least six million doses of COVID-19 vaccine during the first quarter of 2021, but there are few details about how long the immunization campaign might take.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that he hopes most Canadians should get the vaccine by September.

That means the work being done by OPH will continue throughout much of the year.

At Monday's board of health meeting, Etches said she is optimistic about the coming COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

“A lot remains unknown about eventual availability and distribution. There is a lot still to learn.”

But she said OPH has learned from its flu vaccine clinics this year how to operate safe, efficient vaccination campaigns during the pandemic using online bookings.

In what could foreshadow the public demand for a COVID-19 vaccine, OPH vaccinated 48,000 people at flu vaccine clinics during November, compared with 11,000 people between November 2019 and February 2020.

“Ottawa Public Health is preparing for our role in ensuring a critical mass of our population is able to access COVID vaccines in a safe and timely manner,” Etches said.

“I am feeling very positive.”