The stubborn COVID-19 virus is making a comeback in the capital, Ottawa Public Health warns.
“Our monitoring indicators are showing we are now in a new wave of COVID-19,” the agency said bluntly in its weekly “snapshot” on conditions in the area.
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Adding to their concerns, there are indications of a strong return of the “usual” respiratory viruses, especially influenza, that arrive in the fall.
“We are also heading into the respiratory illness season where we expect respiratory viruses to be circulating.”
The wastewater viral signal and the testing per cent positivity rates are both high and increasing, the agency said.
“The same strategies we use to fight COVID-19 can help protect you from other viruses,” the health unit said.
The main precautions are wearing masks in indoor public areas, regular hand washing and staying up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations.
“If you are feeling sick, stay home. Isolate until you have no fever and symptoms have been improving for at least 24 hours. After isolating, continue to wear a mask in public for 10 days,” the agency said.
There is also a boosted program of flu shots underway.
Other health units in Eastern Ontario broadly echoed OPH’s concerns.
In the Kingston region, an infectious disease official said the return to school for children and young adults alike, and the absence of virtually all health precautions, such as masking requirements, are leading to rising rates of COVID-19.
“The three indicators that we typically look at are outbreaks of COVID that are occurring in high risk settings, test positivity, and wastewater detection. All three of those are are rising,” Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious disease specialist at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, told Postmedia.
“Outbreak numbers are substantially up and continue to rise across all the three health units here in the southeast, test positivity is going up, and wastewater detection is on the rise across the province,” he said.
Another factor driving transmission, Evans said, is the lack of public health measures.
“There are virtually no public health measures. Right now, about 80 per cent of the population are basically not adhering to any precautions whatsoever,” he said.
In the Brockville region, Dr. Linna Li, acting medical officer of health echoed those concerns, although she said more information is needed before reaching a conclusion.
“We do perhaps have some early indication that we may be in a new wave,” Li told a meeting of the region’s board of health.
She warned that health officials are still seeing “severe outcomes” in the demographic groups that have suffered them up to now: The unvaccinated, the under-vaccinated, the immunocompromised, and older residents.
In her inaugural report to the regional health board, Li said the indicators the health unit watches, such as the presence of the COVID-19 virus in wastewater at its test sites, leaves her suspecting another wave is upon us, though it will take another week or two to be certain.
–With files from Postmedia News
