2026-27 Enhancements to the Ontario Respiratory Virus Tool

Public Health Ontario (PHO) has updated key resources for the 2026-27 respiratory virus season, delivering an improved user experience and more comprehensive insights on respiratory virus activity in Ontario.

Key enhancements to the Ontario Respiratory Virus Tool (ORVT) include:

• Easier access to respiratory virus insights

  The Summary section has been redesigned to help users quickly understand current respiratory virus activity and trends:

• A restructured Summary section organized into four new tabs:
• Key findings
• Current surveillance week
• Current respiratory season
• Past year trends
• Expanded Key findings, integrated directly into the Summary section, providing enhanced interpretation of:
• Season-to-date trends, projections, RSV activity, and respiratory viruses beyond COVID-19, influenza and RSV

• New interactive projections experience (starting October 23, 2026)

  Integration of the Integrated Respiratory Virus Risk Indicators report, replacing the standalone PDF report:

• Three dedicated tabs:
• Overview
• Percent positivity
• Risk of hospitalization
• Interactive projections with filtering by virus and age group
• Hospitalization risk projections for pediatric, adult and older adult populations

• Expanded visibility into RSV and other respiratory viruses

  The tool now provides greater visibility into respiratory viruses other than COVID-19 and influenza, through expanded RSV reporting and new indicators for other respiratory viruses:

• RSV case data added to the Summary and Cases, and Lab testing sections
• New tables highlighting activity for other respiratory viruses during the current respiratory season in the Summary section
• New trend visualizations showing percent positivity for respiratory viruses other than COVID-19, influenza and RSV, in the Summary section
• Additional interpretations of RSV and other respiratory viruses included in Key findings.

• Improved access to PHU-level data

  Easier to explore PHU-level trends to support local analysis:

• Enhanced PHU maps embedded directly within relevant sections:
  • Lab testing
  • Cases
  • Outcomes
• Updated map legends using continuous colour gradients to improve interpretation
• Influenza A subtypes data moved to Cases section, and now includes PHU-level filtering

• New age group data and visualization updates

  Updated age-based reporting across the tool to improve consistency:

• Consistent age groupings for lab testing and case data (1, 1-4, 5-11, 12-17, 18-49, 50-64,  65-74, 75+), and additional consistency where possible for covid-19 deaths data (0-17, 18-49, 50-64, 65-74, 75+)
• New stacked bar chart visualizations for viewing age-group distributions and trends in case data

• Clearer terminology and supporting information

  Updates throughout the tool to improve clarity and support interpretation:

• The term "respiratory season" replacing "surveillance period" throughout the tool
• Updated Technical Notes reflecting new content and methodology
• An updated User Guide
• Revised footnotes and supporting information throughout the tool

Why are projection visualizations unavailable at the start of the respiratory season?
Projection analyses will be available as of on October 23, 2026. Sufficient data from the 2026-27 respiratory season are needed before reliable projections can be generated. Between September 11 and October 22, users will be able to access the Overview tab within the Projections section, but projection visualizations will not be available.

Why have the age groups changed?
Age groups have been standardized across many lab testing and case datasets to improve comparability and consistency. The updated age groups better align with vaccine program age categories, including eligibility groups, and age-specific risk profiles.

The updated age groups apply to lab testing and case data and, where possible, COVID-19 death data. Hospitalization data continue to use Ministry of Health-defined age groups, and the age groups used in the Projections section remain unchanged.

Note: COVID-19 death data age categories among children are combined for privacy reasons.

Why was "surveillance period" changed to "respiratory season"?
The term "respiratory season" was adopted throughout the tool to improve clarity and better reflect how the data are used and interpreted. Supporting footnotes and documentation have also been updated.

Why was RSV case data added to ORVT this season?
New RSV case data have been added to the Summary and Cases sections to provide an additional indicator of RSV activity in Ontario and allow RSV trends to be viewed alongside COVID-19 and influenza activity. RSV, COVID-19 and influenza cases are derived from OLIS data. Information on this data source and methodology is available in the Technical Notes.

How often is the tool updated?
The tool is updated weekly on Fridays, with data up until the previous Saturday, and on the next business day following a holiday.

What can I do if I can’t find the information that I am looking for?
To see information on source data, methods, assessment criteria, citations and more, explore the Technical Notes. To learn how to navigate the tool, check out the User Guide. PHO has also launched the 2026–27 Respiratory Season Resources webpage. The page brings together surveillance data, reports, guidance documents and educational resources to support public health and health system partners throughout the current respiratory virus season.

If you have any questions about the updates, please email Communicable.DiseaseControl@oahpp.ca.