`Not a return to normal,' but pandemic rules ease
City businesses reopen; adults over 80 added to list of Phase 1 vaccine recipients
Ottawa emerged from a seven-week lockdown Tuesday, but a winter storm kept many people at home despite loosened pandemic restrictions.
The city's return to the Orange-restrict zone means that events and social gatherings in private homes, backyards and parks may now include 10 people for indoor gatherings and 25 for outdoor ones.
Restaurants, stores, businesses and gyms can also reopen, with restrictions and limits. Restaurants and bars are limited to 50 people indoors, with no more than four people per table.
Health officials are urging people to continue to follow public health measures.
“This is not a return to normal,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said via Twitter on Tuesday morning. “Please continue to follow the public health measures and stay home as much as possible.”
Ottawa is preparing to begin vaccinating people 80 and older — who are now among the priority groups in the first phase — as soon as the vaccine supply increases.
Those older adults living in the community were previously in the second phase of the rollout, but will now be included in the first phase based on the expected “gradual increase” in Ontario's vaccine supply in the coming weeks. The province updated its priority list over the weekend.
“This is excellent news given older adults are at greater risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 infection,” said a memo from Ryan Perrault, director of the city's emergency operations centre (EOC), and deputy medical officer of health Dr. Brent Moloughney.
The current vaccine supply, however, “does not allow for the immediate vaccination of older adults” until the city receives more vaccine inventory.
Phase 1 also includes highest-priority health-care workers, seniors in congregate care, and Indigenous adults.
The EOC is “actively assessing the impacts resulting from this updated provincial direction and the team will make any necessary adjustments to local plans, as required,” the memo said.
City council is set to consider locations of community clinics and other “logistical considerations” at its regular meeting on Feb. 24.
Vaccinations this week will focus on other high-priority groups, including second doses for workers and caregivers at long-term care homes.
Ottawa Public Health reported 31 new cases Tuesday and one death. There have now been 14,038 total COVID-19 cases in the city since the beginning of the pandemic and 434 related deaths.
There were 59 new cases reported in Ottawa on Monday. There are now 435 active cases in the city, a slight uptick from last week, when active cases dipped to 402 in the middle of the week.
One new facility-wide outbreak was declared at the city-run Peter D. Clark long-term care home, where a staff member was confirmed positive. The outbreak was declared on Monday.
There have been no new outbreaks related to schools. Outbreaks have been declared at two schools in the two weeks since in-person classes resumed.
OPH has also detected several confirmed cases in Ottawa of highly contagious variants of the virus, including seven known cases of the B117 (U.K.) variant and one known case of the B1351 (South Africa) variant.
On the vaccination front, OPH received another 4,875 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and has now administered 40,013 total doses.
According to OPH inventory, Ottawa has received 39,100 total doses from both Pfizer and Moderna, though that inventory is based on old Pfizer labelling that indicated five doses per vial, while six doses are now being extracted from each vial.
Ottawa's test positivity rate, which includes the rate of positive tests in the community (excluding LTC homes), is at 1.5 per cent for the past 24-hour period. That's slightly below last week's average of 1.6 per cent.
Ottawa's R(t) number, which measures the secondary cases generated by a single confirmed infection, is now at 1.07.
That indicator has been hovering at or slightly below 1.0 for the past four weeks. Any rating above 1.0 indicates the virus is spreading in the community, while any rating below that threshold indicates the virus is coming under control.