Key COVID-19 numbers in the Ottawa area today

• Ottawa has its most COVID-19 deaths in a month since vaccines were approved.

• City's COVID-19 hospitalization count changes little from Thursday.

• Sixty per cent of Ottawa adults have had a third vaccine dose.

• Three COVID deaths have been reported in other parts of eastern Ontario.

Hospitals

There are now 110 Ottawa residents in local hospitals for treatment of active COVID-19, according to Friday's update from Ottawa Public Health (OPH). This number has been generally rising for most of the month, but changes little from Thursday.

Fifteen of those patients are in an ICU, down two from Thursday.

These hospital numbers can lag as information from hospitals is processed and reported. Using this information, Ottawa actually had 142 patients in hospital with COVID on Jan. 19, which set a new hospitalization record.

They also do not include people who came to the hospital for other reasons and then test positive for COVID-19. They also don't cover people with lingering COVID problems, or patients transferred from other health units.

This OPH graphic breaks down the number of patients in local hospitals by category, as of Wednesday.

Hospitals are also challenged on a different level by rising spread because staffing shortages lower their capacity. Additionally, there are 39 hospital outbreaks reported by OPH, which is stable.

Other numbers to watch

The average level of coronavirus in Ottawa's wastewater, which doesn't rely on COVID-19 testing, reached its highest point on record earlier in January and is now declining.

Officials now say the Omicron wave seems to have plateaued.

The case count surged to record levels in many places this winter — and as the Omicron variant's spread overwhelms and limits testing, the actual number of cases in Ottawa is many times higher and some familiar numbers are affected.

On Friday, OPH reported 308 more COVID-19 cases and six more deaths, all people older than age 70 who had COVID

The city has reported 61 COVID deaths this month, passing the 60 reported in May 2021 — the most in a month since COVID vaccines were approved.

The test positivity rate for those who received PCR tests outside long-term care homes continues to sit in the range of 20 per cent. The average in those homes is similar.

The rolling seven-day average of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases expressed per 100,000 residents is around 220. Limited testing capacity makes that metric less reliable.

Vaccines

907,573: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, about 800 more than the last update on Wednesday. That's 91 per cent of the eligible population.

846,723: The number of Ottawa residents age five and up with a second dose, about 2,900 more than Wednesday. Eighty-five per cent of the eligible population now has at least two doses.

506,484: The number of Ottawans age 18 and up with a third dose, about 5,300 since Wednesday. That covers 60 per cent of those residents. Eligibility is extremely limited for children under 18 and 950 have had their third.

52,621: The number of children in Ottawa age five to 11 who have received their first dose of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine, 67 per cent of that age group. About 18,200, or 23 per cent, have two doses.

Across the region

Outside of Ottawa, the wider region has about 180 COVID-19 hospitalizations, with about 35 of them needing intensive care. Those numbers have been stable and don't include Hastings Prince Edward (HPE) Public Health, which has instituted a different way of reporting.

On Friday, HPE reported two more COVID-19 deaths and its hospitalizations remained stable. The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit reported one more COVID death Friday and a stable hospital count.

Three of eastern Ontario's six health units have had more COVID deaths in January 2022 than any other month of the pandemic.