Ottawa Public Health has launched a website to track public COVID-19 exposures in the city, where it is struggling to reach everyone affected.
Three community outbursts were listed on the site at launch, with a fourth added around noon Tuesday:
- A Tourism Industry Association of Canada Congress at the Westin Ottawa on November 30 from 9.15 to 17.30 and on 1 December from kl. 8.30 to 21.00
- Bronson Center on December 2 from 19:00 to 21:00. The place hosted a Dwayne Gretzky holiday show that night.
- Xtreme Trampoline in Kanata on December 5 from 5:30 pm to 7:45 pm
- Bronson Center on December 7 from 18.30 to 23.00 The venue hosted a Big Wreck & Monster Truck concert that evening.
Anyone who was in one of the above locations at the indicated times and dates, and who also shows symptoms of COVID-19, should immediately take a test and isolate themselves, whether or not they have been vaccinated.
Anyone who is fully vaccinated and does not show symptoms does not need to isolate themselves, while the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated should isolate themselves for 10 days and only be tested if they start to show symptoms.
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OPH has a complete list of instructions for anyone who may be exposed on the web page.
Additional outbreaks will be added regularly and will remain up to 14 days, the incubation period for the virus.
The exposures listed on the website do not take into account all exposures in the Ottawa community, only those where OPH has not been able to identify anyone who could have been affected.
Most of the outbreak sites have public health measures in place, OPH says, but COVID-19 transmission remains a risk.
OPH has typically been reluctant to reveal the specific sites of community outbreaks during the pandemic, citing concerns about privacy.
But the health unit said in a statement Monday night that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in Ottawa made it difficult for its contact trackers to effectively get in touch with high-risk contacts.
“The emergence of the Omicron variant has led to a large increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in Ottawa. As a result, Ottawa Public Health is currently experiencing a backlog with its case and contact management system, resulting in delayed notifications to persons tested positive for COVID-19 and their high-risk contacts, “the statement read.
OPH asks all residents to inform their own high-risk contacts about the need to isolate themselves and be tested.
While OPH’s COVID-19 update on Tuesday still only shows eight cases of the Omicron variant locally, a suspected Omicron infection goes through several days of genetic sequencing before it can be confirmed. Public health experts expect the variant, which is believed to be more transmissible, to overtake Delta as the dominant tribe in Ontario in the short term.
Meanwhile, Ottawa continues to see an increase in outbreaks that specifically affect elementary schools and day care centers.
Nine new COVID-19 outbreaks were added to OPH’s dashboard on Tuesday, raising the number of active outbreaks in primary schools to 28 and childcare settings to six. There are now a total of 42 ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa.
OPH on Tuesday reported 124 new cases of COVID-19, raising the number of known active cases in the city to over 800.
There are still six people in the hospital locally with COVID-19 and no patients in the intensive care unit, unchanged from Monday.
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