Ottawa Public Health is reporting its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in a week.
In its COVID-19 dashboard update on Tuesday, OPH reported 13 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19 and one more person has died. The last time numbers were below 20 was on Dec. 8, when 18 new cases were reported.
This comes amid changes to data extraction methods at the provincial level that gave Ottawa a negative case count on Tuesday.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province made the change Tuesday, which led to an increase in the number of cases reported across Ontario.
Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA’s “Ottawa at Work with Leslie Roberts”, Elliott said the numbers are still concerning, despite the data adjustment.
“One of the issues relating to the numbers today is that there were two areas that just signed on to our new digital system and there was just a bit of a reorganization and we ended up having two-and-a-half extra hours for the numbers to be counted, so that’s one explanation for the higher numbres,” Elliott said. “Notwithstanding that, we’re still watching it very carefully in a number of parts of Ontario.”
However, Ottawa’s figure fell by nine cases in Ontario’s report. On Monday, Public Health Ontario said its total case count in Ottawa was 9,111 since the pandemic began. The province now says there have been 9,102 total COVID-19 cases.
Elliott said the provincial figure for Ottawa will be adjusted.
“We will have a better idea, I think, tomorrow of where the numbers actually are,” she said.
