Ottawa Public Health’s latest COVID-19 report shows zero patients were in hospital with the virus locally as of Thursday.
In addition to the news of empty hospital beds, OPH added no new COVID-19 cases for the third time in the past four days. The local COVID-19 dashboard showed one case was removed from the city’s totals on Thursday afternoon.
The number of active cases of the virus locally dropped to 22.
The Ray Friel COVID-19 testing centre in the east end will reopen on Friday after a technical glitch forced the site to close on Thursday, according to the city’s testing task force.
Also on Thursday, the city opened up walk-in COVID-19 vaccine appointments for residents seeking either first or second doses at select community clinics.
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While all city-run clinics will offer first-doses on a walk-in basis, the city will release a list of sites on a daily basis where available supplies will allow drop-in second doses.
The city is also encouraging residents to move up their second dose appointments as soon as possible.
While most residents who booked through the provincial portal were given automatic dates for follow-up shots in September and October, the city is cautioning that the availability of those slots will be up in the air as the vaccine task force looks to wind down operations at some clinics in the weeks ahead.
“Unfortunately, many of these appointments are for clinic times and dates that will no longer exist due to progress in the city’s vaccine distribution plan,” the city said in a release.
