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Last week, cases across the province were doubling roughly every four days. Hopefully, that doubling will stretch to five, six and seven days, said Etches.

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

“We all need to do our part. This continues to be the message. We’re protecting ourselves and the most vulnerable population.”

On Monday, Mayor Jim Watson announced city bylaw officers will be cracking down on residents who are gathering in contravention of the province’s emergency act, which has been extended for another two weeks.

“It’s not just illegal, it’s idiotic to hold a house party in the midst of a pandemic,” Watson said.

Etches said there was a report of a family get-together with 20 people in a house.

“We have to make sure people understand (about physical distancing) that ‘this means you’.”

There were 144 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ottawa as of 4 p.m. Monday, an increase of 14 new cases, according to Ottawa Public Health data. In total, 20 people were in hospital with six of these in intensive care. To compare, on Friday, Ottawa Public Health reported 75 confirmed cases, with 17 people in hospital and seven in intensive care.

So far, about 30 per cent of cases are related to travel and another 20 per cent are because of close contact with an infected person. There is no status on roughly 30 per cent of the cases. About 11 per cent of cases have no travel history or close contact with an infected person.

Ottawa Public Health also reported its third death related to COVID-19 on Tuesday, the second death of a resident at the Promenade retirement residence in Orléans. The two victims were a man and a woman, both in their 80s. Ottawa’s first COVID-19 death was a man in his 90s who lived at home. He died last Wednesday.