COVID-19 AND WHERE YOU LIVE IN OTTAWA
Geographic data specific to 100 city neighbourhoods are helping public health officials target their efforts
When Ottawa Public Health recently released geographic vaccination data for the city, chief medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches cautioned that although the figures — broken down into more than 100 neighbourhoods identified by the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study — were useful in directing vaccination efforts, they only painted part of the picture.
“This neighbourhood-level data of vaccine coverage does not help us understand the risk of COVID in these neighbourhoods. It's based on the address of where people live; it doesn't relate to where people spend most of their time working or in school,” she said
“The unvaccinated population in Ottawa is across the whole city, so you can't draw a circle around the unvaccinated population in Ottawa.”
Indeed, the data are so granular that many residents may not identify solely with the neighbourhood that their address pigeonholes them into, but rather a slightly larger one.
For example, you rarely hear someone say they live in Old Barrhaven East or Old Barrhaven West. More often, people simply say they live in Barrhaven.
With that in mind, the Citizen undertook to sort the COVID vaccination and infection data into 15 larger neighbourhoods, largely based on pre-amalgamation identification. Due to their growth, Orléans, Stittsville and Barrhaven were hived off from their original regions — Gloucester, Goulbourn and Nepean — and assigned their own neighbourhoods.
Here are thumbnail sketches of each of the 15 neighbourhoods, ranked from the highest portion of double-vaccinated residents to the lowest. Vaccination data include
residents 12 and older who received vaccines on or before Aug. 2. Infection rates include data up to June 30, for all Ottawa residents.
It should be noted, too, that although OPH's vaccination data showed that 83.3 per cent of eligible Ottawa residents had received at least one vaccination by Aug. 2, and 72.5 per cent had received both, the total population used by OPH does not exactly match the total of neighbourhood populations used by ONS, while nearly 22,000 vaccinations administered to Ottawans were not identified by neighbourhood, and so are not included in these comparisons. As a result of these discrepancies, the average overall vaccination rates used for Ottawa will be about four percentage points lower, at 79.2 per cent for one or more inoculations, and 68.5 per cent for two.
STITTSVILLE
Stittsville's 37,000+ residents 12 and older are easily Ottawa's most vaccinated, with 79.3 per cent receiving two doses, and 89.2 per cent receiving at least one, about 10 points higher than the city average.
Not surprisingly, then, Stittsville's COVID infection rate is among Ottawa's lowest, its 1,676 cases per 100,000 population ranking fourth-best in the city, almost 900 cases lower than the neighbourhood-identified city average of 2,545 per 100,000 people.
GOULBOURN
Goulbourn, which includes Munster-Ashton and Richmond, and under whose umbrella Stittsville formerly resided, is the only neighbourhood with vaccination rates approaching Stittsville's, with 76 per cent of its 12,263 residents 12 and older receiving two shots, and 86.7 per cent receiving at least one. Similarly, Goulbourn's infection rate is relatively low, fifth-best in the city at 1,745 cases per 100,000 population.
RIDEAU
Manotick's extremely high double-vaccination rate of 78.5 per cent — seventh among ONS's 105 neighbourhoods — is somewhat tempered by the low rates — around 62 per cent each — in North Gower-Kars and Marlborough, leaving the Rideau area with single- and double-vax rates of 81.5 and 73 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, with 276 COVID cases spread among its 20,000+ residents, Rideau's rate of only 1,349 cases per 100,000 ranks second-lowest in Ottawa.
CUMBERLAND
The very high rates of double-vaccination in Vars and Cumberland — 85.2 and 83 per cent, respectively, are pulled down by Navan-Sarsfield's 60.6 per cent — among the lowest quintile of ONS's neighbourhoods, leaving the area's nearly 12,000 eligible residents an overall double-vaxxed rate of 72.5 per cent and a single-vaxxed rate of 82.7 per cent.
That said, the ninth-place infection rate of 2,394 per 100,000 residents is still better than the city average.
OSGOODE TOWNSHIP
Made up of Osgoode-Vernon, Greely, Metcalfe and the Greenbelt, Osgoode Township's singleand double-vaccination rates are 72 and 81.3 per cent, respectively. With 463 COVID-19 cases, its infection rate of 1,884 per 100,000 residents ranks sixth-lowest in Ottawa.
KANATA
Kanata Lakes-Arcardia and Bridlewood-Emerald Meadows are the only ONS neighbourhoods among the six comprising Kanata to have double-vaxxed rates above 70 per cent (75 and 72.6 per cent, respectively), but their populations are enough to keep the area above that mark, with 71.4 per cent of residents receiving two vaccinations, while 81.2 per cent have received at least one. Kanata's infection rate of 1,627 per 100,000 residents, meanwhile, is third-lowest in the city.
WEST CARLETON
While Fitzroy boasts the city's lowest single-, and seventh-lowest double-vaccination rates in Ottawa (62 and 54.6 per cent, respectively), its and the rest of West Carleton's low population density likely accounts for the city's lowest COVID infection rate, at just 890 cases per 100,000 population.
Meanwhile, the overall vaccination rates in West Carleton, which includes Carp, Dunrobin and Corkery, are 79.6 per cent with at least one vaccination, and 71.1 per cent with two.
BARRHAVEN
Barrhaven is the city's midpoint for both double-vaccination rate (70.8 per cent) and infection rate (2,329 cases per 100,000 population). Curiously, it boasts the highest proportion of residents seemingly between vaccinations, with almost 12 per cent of its residents having had only one vaccination. Its single-vaccination rate, though, at 82.6 per cent, is fourth-highest in the city.
ORLÉANS
Comprising 10 ONS neighbourhoods from Chapel Hill to Portobello South to Chatelaine Village, Orléans is the second-most populous region, with fairly consistent vaccination rates throughout — 70.7 per cent of residents with at least one vaccination, and 81.3 per cent with two. Its overall infection rate, at 2,732 cases per 100,000 residents, ranks Orléans fourth-highest in Ottawa, with Chapel Hill South and Portobello South experiencing infection rates of more than 4,000 per 100,000 residents.
WEST OTTAWA
From Hintonburg-Mechanicsville to Britannia, and to Baseline Road in the south, West Ottawa has some of the widest disparities in both vaccination and infection rates. Island Park-Wellington Village's double vaccination rate of 78.6 per cent, for example, is more than 20 points higher than Carlington's 57.4 per cent, providing a clear example of the inequitable access faced by Ottawa's more disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
Overall, West Ottawa's vaccination rates are 78.6 and 68.9 per cent for double- and single-vaxxed, while its infection rate, at 2,067 cases per 100,000 residents, is seventh-lowest in the city, or mid-pack.
GLOUCESTER
The 10 ONS neighbourhoods that make up Gloucester similarly show a significant gap in vaccination numbers, with Riverside SouthLeitrim, for example, boasting a double-vax rate of 77.3 per cent, while Beacon Hill South-Cardinal Heights and Pineview are both below 60 per cent. Overall, Gloucester's single- and double-vaccinated rates are 80.1 and 68.7 per cent, respectively, while its infection rate, at 2,518 per 100,000 residents, ranks 10th out of 15.
NEPEAN
Of the 16 ONS neighbourhoods that make up Nepean, only one — Borden Farm-Fisher Glen — ranks among Ottawa's top dozen in terms of double-vaccination, with 76.1 per cent of eligible residents getting both jabs. Two of its component neighbourhoods, however — Bayshore-Belltown and Parkwood Hills-Stewart Farm — are among the city's lowest, at 53.6 and 52.1 per cent, respectively.
Overall, Nepean's vaccination rates are 78.5 per cent with at least one shot, and 67.2 per cent with two. The infection rate of 2,760 cases per 100,000 population, is third-highest in the city.
CENTRAL OTTAWA
Centretown, with about 30,000 residents, is by far the largest of the 10 ONS neighbourhoods that comprise Central Ottawa, an area that includes Lowertown, the ByWard Market, the Glebe, Sandy Hill, West Centretown and Old Ottawa South and East. Centretown also closely matches Central Ottawa's overall vaccination rates of 76.2 and 65.8 per cent for first and second vaccinations. But within the neighbourhood, the relationship between vaccines and infections couldn't be clearer: the ByWard Market and Lowertown have markedly lower vaccination rates than elsewhere, and correspondingly high infection rates — more than 4,000 cases per 100,000 residents, while the Glebe and Old Ottawa South show the reverse.
Overall, Central Ottawa's infection rate of 2,521 cases per 100,000 people ranks 11th.
SOUTH OTTAWA
South Ottawa, including much from Billings Bridge south to Hunt Club, is the most populous of the 15 neighbourhoods and includes four of the seven ONS neighbourhoods with the lowest double-vaccinated rates in Ottawa.
Overall, its vaccination rate is 74.9 per cent with at least one vaccination, and 63.3 per cent with two. Six of its 16 component neighbourhoods, meanwhile, have infection rates greater than 4,000 per 100,000 residents, with half of those exceeding 7,000. The overall infection rate of 4,086 is the highest in Ottawa.
EAST OTTAWA
East Ottawa, which includes Vanier, Rockcliffe Park, Manor Park, Overbrook-McArthur and Lindenlea-New Edinburgh, is the only neighbourhood where the double-vaxxed population fell short of 60 per cent — at 59.5 — while the portion of residents with at least one vaccination — 70.5 per cent — was also the lowest in Ottawa.