COVID-19 Update Dec 22 2021

To: Ottawa Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Travel and Walk-In ClinicsDate: December 22, 2021From: Dr Robin Taylor, Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr Sarah Erdman, Medical Director

Dear Colleagues,Guidance from the Ministry of Health regarding COVID-19 is rapidly changing. Thank you for your patience. Below is a summary of recent changes. We will attempt to keep you updated as more information is available.

Testing of Health Care Workers (HCW)

The health care system and testing task force...

COVID-19 Update Dec 17, 2021

To: Ottawa Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Travel and Walk-In ClinicsDate: Dec 17, 2021From: Dr Sarah Funnell, Associate Medical Officer of Health, Dr Sarah Erdman, Medical Director

Dear Colleagues,

Omicron is quickly becoming the dominant variant in Ottawa. Due to the surge in demand for testing, COVID-19 testing is no longer available for everyone in a timely manner. Because of this unfortunate reality, OPH will be directing people with any symptoms of COVID-19 who are unable to access a...

Request for physician immunizers to provide COVID-19 third doses

To: Ottawa PhysiciansDate: Dec 14, 2021From: Dr. Vera Etches, Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Trevor Arnason, Associate Medical Officer of Health, Immunization

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for all the work you have done and continue to do to support the health of Ottawa residents and the vaccination campaign in Ottawa.

Owing to the serious threat of the Omicron variant, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, Dr Kieran Moore, has now emphasized the need for an emergency response approach...

COVID-19 Update Dec 10, 2021

To: Ottawa Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Travel and Walk-In ClinicsDate: Dec 10, 2021From: Dr. Dave Salisbury, Medical Director, Dr. Robin Taylor, Associate Medical Officer of Health

Dear Colleagues,

The sharp uptick in case numbers in Ottawa over the last few days has resulted in volume challenges with case and contact management. As a result, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is streamlining case management and may need to limit our contact tracing in order to maintain timely management of cases...

COVID-19 Omicron variant update

To: Ottawa Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Midwives, Travel Clinics and Walk-in Clinics, and Infection ControlDate: December 9, 2021From: Dr. Dave Salisbury, Medical Director and Dr. Robin Taylor, Associate Medical Officer of Health

Dear Colleagues,The World Health Organization has recently designated a new variant of concern (VOC) of the COVID-19 virus named Omicron. As you may have read, to date four laboratory confirmed cases of this variant have been identified in Ottawa. All of these cases...