Return of Federal workers to office paused; The Provice has appointed its O-Train investigator; Repor your local Trumpeter Swan

Friday, December 17, 2021

HELLO OTTAWA

Weekend Plans

We're skipping the weekend plans section this week until we have a better idea what is going on with the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

We started compiling it – and came across more than one item that has been postponed.

Readers of the Coronavirus Update, below, will notice that the daily change is rapidly going upward. The daily change in Ottawa COVID-19 cases last Friday was 106, today it is 309.

We believe that this is the universe's way of telling us to not make set plans for the next few weeks. It's time to start taking the COVID-19 rules seriously again, the most important being staying two metres apart.

We'll see you Monday – Martha and Darren

? Is there something that Ottawa should know about? Email to us at [email protected]. We read every single comment.

#PARTNER

The Good Ideas Shop is a pretty cool window display of six online Ottawa businesses. Just like those lavishly decorated department store window displays of Christmases past, the Good Ideas Shop window showcases products by the six businesses, only with QR codes to take you to their online shopping experience.

You'll find it at 56 ByWard Market Square.

Every day for the rest of this week we’ll tell you about two of those businesses.

? Birch Bark Coffee – founded by Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, Birch Bark Coffee Company is a cause-driven organization focused on improving on-going social issues for Indigenous families. Birch Bark Coffee is proud to offer delicious, organic, SPP certified, Fair Trade coffee grown and produced by Indigenous farmers.

? Brenda Made This – During the pandemic, Brenda turned her passion for knitting into profit, selling beautiful and comfortable made-to-order knit sweaters, home items, and knit patterns to inspire shoppers to try knitting themselves. Brenda saw an opportunity to provide a sustainable fashion option, through hand-made, quality knit items that are meant to last.

GIFT BOX WINNER

Darren's mom and dad pulled the name from the hat this morning.

The winner of the Gift Box is CATHY (last 3 digits of phone number: 351)

We'll give you a call and get it to you this weekend.

Thank you to the so many people who entered. This is easily the biggest response to anything that we have done.

STATS

Weather: ☁️ Cloudy. High of 5°, low of -6°

Number: $1. The price of everything every Wednesday at Quick Pick, 2444 Wildwood Ave. Fridays, everything is $25, Saturdays $20, Sundays $15, Mondays $10, Tuesdays are $5. The shop is closed Thursdays to restock. [CTV]

Ottawans of the Day: Jane Mariki and Catherine Olagunju. The two personal support workers were two of 35 home care workers who received a Home Care Hero award from Home Care Ontario. [Ottawa Citizen]

Quote: ‘It’s really citizen scientists we’re looking for’ – Susan Best of the Ontario Trumpeter Swan Restoration Group, whichhas been attempting to restore the species to Ontario for more than 30 years. [The Review] [Report sightings]

Sports: NHL Ottawa Senators 1 – Tampa Bay Lightning 2, last night

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Data is from this morning, comparisons are with yesterday

ONTARIO

cases	change	deaths
642,465	? 3,124	10,107?5

? Eligible people with one dose (5+)		85.6%
? Eligible people fully vaccinated (5+)		80.4%

Ontario COVID Page Ontario Vaccine Rates

QUEBEC

cases	change	deaths
478,246	?3,768	11,634?7

? Eligible people with one dose (5+)		88.3%
? Eligible people fully vaccinated (5+)		81.4%

Quebec COVID Page Quebec Vaccine Rates

OTTAWA

cases	change	deaths
33,712	?309	620 ?1

? Eligible people with one dose (5+)		884,898 (89%)
? Eligible people fully vaccinated (5+)		818,722 (82%)

Ottawa Public Health Ottawa Vaccination Rates. Ottawa Wastewater

OUTAOUAIS

cases	change	deaths
15,116	?71	223 ?0

? Number of doses of vaccine

648,652

As of December 10, 2021 Updated Weekly

? Eligible people with one dose (12+)		88.1%
? Eligible people fully vaccinated (12+)		85.4%

Outaouais Public Health Quebec Vaccination Rates

EASTERN ONTARIO HEALTH UNIT

cases	change	deaths
6363	?44	133 ?0

? Eligible people with one dose (5+)		174,314 (85%)
? Eligible people fully vaccinated (5+)		163,970 (80%)
? Eligible people with booster shot		18,853

Eastern Ontario Health Unit Eastern Ontario Health Unit Vaccination Rates

COVID-19 NEWS

⭕ Starting Monday, kids 12 to 17 years of age will need to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to use City sports arenas and recreational centres, even for organized sports. [City of Ottawa]

⭕ The Treasury Board has halted efforts to have Federal staff return to office buildings downtown due to the increasing cases of the Omicron variant. [Ottawa Citizen]

⭕ The free rapid COVID-19 testing kits were sent to eight Ottawa LCBO stores – and almost immediately given away. If you want to try, the locations are:

Bank Street and Walkley Road.
Carling Avenue and Woodroffe Avenue (Fairlawn Centre).
Rideau Street and King Edward Avenue.
Blair Road and Ogilvie Road (Gloucester).
West Hunt Club Road and Merivale Road (Nepean Crossroads).
Strandherd Drive and Greenbank Road (Nepean).
Innes Road and Tenth Line Road (Orleans).

[CBC]

⭕ The exemption from COVID testing for people who cross borders for only 72 hours has been rescinded – even land crossings to the United States. [CBC]

⭕ The Citizen has figured out vaccination rates by Zodiac sign and we'd say this is ridiculous if it wasn't so accurate. Most vaccinated: Gemini; least vaccinated: Sagittarius [Ottawa Citizen]

SADLY, WE CAN’T GUARANTEE DELIVERY BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

Support the ottawan

Buy one of our Ottawa Historic Logo t-shirts or an ottawan logo t-shirt (which is sure to be historic one day).

Historic the ottawan

WHAT OTTAWA IS TALKING ABOUT

▪️The City has authorized a peer-review of the Trillium line. The plan is to hire a third-party operator or builder of transit systems to review the work of the Trillium line extention with enough time given to make changes before the line returns to service in August 2022. [Ottawa Citizen]

▪️The Arnprior & McNab/Braeside Archives has just added hundreds of local newspapers to its online archive. The digital archive now includes copies of Ottawa Valley newspapers from 1866 to 1975, thanks to funding from the Federal government and the Ottawa branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. [Renfrew Record] [Look at the papers]