What you need to know about COVID-19 in Ottawa on Monday, March 29

Nearly three dozen pharmacies in Ottawa could be dispensing COVID-19 vaccines as early as next week, according to the Ontario Pharmacists Association.

The Eastern Ontario Health Unit has now moved from orange to red on Ontario’s colour-coded pandemic restriction scale, meaning tougher rules around activities such as indoor dining and team sports.

Some experts say mandating the COVID-19 vaccine in care homes isn’t the right choice, while others say there’s a case to be made about the risks outweighing people’s right to choose in those settings

How many cases are there?

As of Sunday, 16,881 Ottawa residents have tested positive for COVID-19. There are 1,029 known active cases, 15,393 resolved cases and 459 deaths.

Public health officials have reported nearly 30,400 COVID-19 cases across eastern Ontario and western Quebec, including more than 27,600 resolved cases.

Elsewhere in eastern Ontario, 137 people have died. In western Quebec, the death toll is 172.

Akwesasne has had more than 260 residents test positive on the Canadian side of the border and seven deaths. It’s had more than 540 cases when its southern section is added.

Kitigan Zibi has had 21 confirmed cases and Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory has had eight, with one death.

CBC Ottawa is profiling those who’ve died of COVID-19. If you’d like to share your loved one’s story, please get in touch.

What can I do?

The province’s science advisers are among experts saying Ontario is in its third wave of the pandemic.

Eastern Ontario now ranges from red to green under the province’s colour-coded pandemic scale. Restaurants, gyms, personal-care services and non-essential businesses are open across the region.

Ottawa, the EOHU and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit are all in the red zone, which means all gatherings are capped at five people inside and 25 outside. Religious services can have more people.

Restaurants in red zones have a maximum capacity of 50 per cent to a maximum of 50 people. In orange, red and grey zones, only people who live together can sit together inside; so can people who live alone with one other household. That expands to patios in grey.

Theatres are closed in red zones and team sports games and scrimmages are banned.

Going red also means only leaving home for essential reasons and not having indoor visitors.

The Kingston area and Renfrew County are yellow and the Belleville area is green.

Local health units can also set their own rules, like what Kingston’s is doing around gatherings and Lanark County’s is doing for sports.

In western Quebec, gyms and restaurants can open under its orange zone rules, as can non-essential businesses. 

Outdoor gatherings of up to eight people are allowed. The region’s curfew hours are 9:30 p.m. until 5 a.m.

Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Que., and some of the surrounding area remains in red. The Outaouais may join it if its trends don’t turn around, officials say.

People across the Ottawa-Gatineau area are asked to only have close contact with people they live with, be masked and distanced for all other in-person contact and only travel for essential reasons, especially between differently coloured zones.

Distancing and isolating

The novel coronavirus primarily spreads through droplets when an infected person speaks, coughs, sneezes, or breathes onto someone or something. These droplets can hang in the air.

People can be contagious without symptoms, even after getting a vaccine. New coronavirus variants can be more contagious and are spreading quickly in some places.

This means it is important to take precautions now and in the future like staying home while sick — and getting help with costs if needed — keeping hands and surfaces clean and maintaining distance from anyone you don’t live with, even with a mask on.

WATCH | Weighing the risks of variants while outdoors:

With new concerns about coronavirus variants, an infectious disease specialist answers questions about how safe it is outdoors and how to mitigate the risks. 2:17

Masks, preferably ones that fit snugly and have three layers, are mandatory in indoor public settings in Ontario and Quebec.

OPH says residents should wear masks outside their homes whenever possible.

Health Canada recommends older adults and people with underlying medical conditions and/or weakened immune systems stay home as much as possible and get help with errands.

People have to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test to enter Canada by land without a fine and have to pay for their stay in a quarantine hotel if entering by air.

Anyone with COVID-19 symptoms should self-isolate, as should those who’ve been ordered to do so by their public health unit. The length varies in Quebec and Ontario.

Vaccines

Four COVID-19 vaccines have been approved in Canada.

Canada’s task force said first doses offer such strong protection that people can wait up to four months to get a second, meaning jurisdictions can spread first doses widely.

About 256,000 doses have been given out in the wider region since mid-December, including about 110,000 doses in Ottawa and about 34,000 in western Quebec.

Ontario’s first doses of Phase 1 generally went to care home residents and health-care workers.

The provincewide campaign has expanded to include more priority groups such as all people over age 75, and people 70 and older in certain regions. People can book appointments online or over the phone.

Phase 2 should include people with underlying health conditions in April, followed by people who can’t work from home or are 60 and older in June.

Phase 3, slated to begin in July, will involve vaccinating anyone older than 16.

WATCH | Experts weigh vaccine rights of residents, staff in nursing homes:

Kerry Bowman, bioethics professor at the University of Toronto, says education and information is the way to fight vaccine hesitancy among personal support workers, rather than mandating vaccination. 0:55

Local health units have some flexibility in the larger framework, so check their websites for details. What each local health unit is managing themselves can differ from what they’re leaning on the provincial system to do.

Some Ottawans in certain neighbourhoods can check their eligibility online and call the city at 613-691-5505 for an appointment. So can Indigenous people over age 40.

People who are above or turning age 60 in the Kingston area can contact one of nearly 50 pharmacies for a vaccine appointment as part of a pilot project. 

Quebec also started by vaccinating people in care homes and health-care workers.

The vaccination plan now covers people age 65 and older at six western Quebec clinics. That will be followed by essential workers and finally the general public.

Officials expect everyone over the age of 65 to be vaccinated by mid-April and everyone who wants a shot to be able to get one by by Fête nationale on June 24.

People who qualify can make an appointment online or over the phone. Pharmacists there will also be giving shots, with appointments available for booking starting today in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge.

Symptoms and testing

COVID-19 can range from a cold-like illness to a severe lung infection, with common symptoms including fever, a cough, vomiting and loss of taste or smell. Children tend to have an upset stomach and/or a rash.

If you have severe symptoms, call 911.

Mental health can also be affected by the pandemic, and resources are available to help.

In eastern Ontario:

Anyone seeking a test should book an appointment. 

Ontario recommends only getting tested if you have symptoms, if you’ve been told to by your health unit or the province, or if you fit certain other criteria.

The health unit for the Kingston area is asking anyone who has left the region or seen someone from outside the region to get tested as it tracks variants.

People without symptoms but who are part of the province’s targeted testing strategy can make an appointment at select pharmacies.

Travellers who need a test have very few local options to pay for one.

Check with your area’s health unit for clinic locations and hours. Some are offering pop-up or mobile clinics.

In western Quebec:

Tests are strongly recommended for people with symptoms and their contacts.

Outaouais residents can make an appointment in Gatineau at 135 blvd. Saint-Raymond or 617 ave. Buckingham. They can check the wait time for the Saint-Raymond site.

There are recurring clinics by appointment in communities such as Maniwaki and Petite-Nation. It said on Thursday it is expanding testing hours to meet demand.

Call 1-877-644-4545 with questions, including if walk-in testing is available nearby.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis:

Akwesasne has a COVID-19 test site by appointment only and a curfew of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. It’s closed to non-essential visits until April 11.

Anyone returning to the community on the Canadian side of the international border who’s been farther than 160 kilometres away — or visited Montreal — for non-essential reasons is asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

People in Pikwakanagan can book a COVID-19 test by calling 613-625-1175. Anyone in Tyendinaga who’s interested in a test can call 613-967-3603 and in Kitigan Zibi, 819-449-5593.

Inuit in Ottawa can call the Akausivik Inuit Family Health Team at 613-740-0999 for service, including testing and vaccines, in Inuktitut or English on weekdays.

For more information