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COVID-19: Mayor declares state of emergency in Ottawa
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a municipal state of emergency Wednesday morning, a declaration that will allow the city to “deploy our emergency operations in a quicker and more nimble fashion.”
He made the announcement at Ottawa city council’s first-ever virtual meeting.
“Among other things, it will enable a more flexible procurement process, which will help us to rapidly purchase the equipment that our frontline workers and first responders need, as it becomes available in the coming weeks,” said Watson.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario rose by 100 Wednesday morning — up to 688 from 588 on Tuesday. None of the new cases were linked to the Ottawa Public Health unit, leaving the city’s total confirmed cases tally at 27. There have been nine deaths and eight resolved cases in the province – meaning the patient is no longer considered infectious.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, there were 1,959 confirmed cases across Canada and 27 deaths.
The provincial ministry of health updates a COVID-19 webpage with new cases twice daily.
Generally, statistics for official diagnoses should be viewed with caution. Testing does not track down all cases in a community because the mild symptoms most people have aren’t distinguishable from common colds, and because public health can’t test large numbers of people.
In a presentation at Wednesday’s council meeting, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, said 60 Ottawa Public Health staff – up from 10 – are now working on tracing the activities and close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Etches said the unit has followed up with approximately 1,500 close contacts so far.
“The average number of contacts for one case is 16 at this point – that’s what were trying to change,” said Etches.
Ottawa is trying to learn from other countries that have had success with strong physical distancing measures and significant testing practices, said Etches. “The significant contact tracing that’s been carried out in other communities is also something that Ottawa Public Health is working to do.”
She said plans are also underway to open centres focused more on clinical care and less on testing for COVID-19, as well as community paramedicine for those who might not be able to travel for testing.
“We want to change the social norm so people for this time period are really limiting their contact to their household members as much as possible.”
The last time Ottawa declared a state of emergency was April 25, 2019, during devastating spring flooding. It remained in place for more than six weeks.
More to come.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a municipal state of emergency Wednesday morning, a declaration that will allow the city to “deploy our emergency operations in a quicker and more nimble fashion.”
He made the announcement at Ottawa city council’s first-ever virtual meeting.
“Among other things, it will enable a more flexible procurement process, which will help us to rapidly purchase the equipment that our frontline workers and first responders need, as it becomes available in the coming weeks,” said Watson.
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario rose by 100 Wednesday morning — up to 688 from 588 on Tuesday. None of the new cases were linked to the Ottawa Public Health unit, leaving the city’s total confirmed cases tally at 27. There have been nine deaths and eight resolved cases in the province – meaning the patient is no longer considered infectious.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, there were 1,959 confirmed cases across Canada and 27 deaths.
The provincial ministry of health updates a COVID-19 webpage with new cases twice daily.
Generally, statistics for official diagnoses should be viewed with caution. Testing does not track down all cases in a community because the mild symptoms most people have aren’t distinguishable from common colds, and because public health can’t test large numbers of people.
In a presentation at Wednesday’s council meeting, Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, said 60 Ottawa Public Health staff – up from 10 – are now working on tracing the activities and close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Etches said the unit has followed up with approximately 1,500 close contacts so far.
“The average number of contacts for one case is 16 at this point – that’s what were trying to change,” said Etches.
Ottawa is trying to learn from other countries that have had success with strong physical distancing measures and significant testing practices, said Etches. “The significant contact tracing that’s been carried out in other communities is also something that Ottawa Public Health is working to do.”
She said plans are also underway to open centres focused more on clinical care and less on testing for COVID-19, as well as community paramedicine for those who might not be able to travel for testing.
“We want to change the social norm so people for this time period are really limiting their contact to their household members as much as possible.”
The last time Ottawa declared a state of emergency was April 25, 2019, during devastating spring flooding. It remained in place for more than six weeks.
More to come.
