Ontario has officially entered its seventh wave of COVID-19, this time driven by the subvariant Omicron BA.5, confirms the province’s leading physician.
“Unfortunately, yes, we are on another wave,” Dr. Kieran Moore told CBC News Wednesday after Ontario’s scientific advice board on COVID-19 pointed to exponential growth in most health units. public.
Moore says the province is now reviewing eligibility for booster doses and a decision will be made soon.
The BA.5 subvariant has been rising slowly since early June, but it really started to “take off” in the middle of the month, becoming a dominant strain, Moore said. Ontario can probably wait four or five more weeks in this wave, which is now in its third week, he said, adding that infections are expected to increase over the next 10 days before they start to subside.
The new wave comes in the middle of the summer months, when many spend more time outdoors, something that would otherwise have been expected to help curb the spread of the transmission, raising questions about what will happen. as more people head inland during the year.
“A lot of unknowns for the fall, but I can assure all Ontarians that we are preparing,” Moore said.
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According to the province’s chief physician, 66 percent of the new circulating strains are now strain BA.5, leading to an increase in the positivity of tests and hospitalizations.
“We could ask Onttarians to wear masks while we go indoors in the fall and we can force it if our health system has too many people admitted, too many people waiting in the emergency departments … We all want to keep our system in place. health. capacity “.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, the scientific panel noted several key indicators that signal the start of a wave, just over a month after the end of most public health measures, including mask warrants.
Test of positivity above 10% for the first time since May
For the first time since May, test positivity is above 10%, with signs of wastewater rising across the province as a whole and most regions, the scientific table says.
About 80 percent of public health units are experiencing exponential growth in cases, although the group says the actual number of reproductions is difficult to reduce as the province moved to limit PCR testing.
In addition, Ontario is experiencing its first increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 since May, with the number of people admitted to the virus higher than at any time last summer.
4) ~ 80% of public health units have exponential growth in cases (Rt> 1), indicating that this is occurring across the province (Note, Rt is more difficult to interpret given the evidence of limited PCR).
(7/17) < a href="https://t.co/XXwMWwNCU1">pic.twitter.com/XXwMWwNCU1
– @ COVIDSciOntario
The latest figures from the scientific table show that as of June 29, 605 people were hospitalized as a result of the virus. This is an increase of 89 people over the previous week.
An estimated six people a day died from the virus on July 3, more than three the previous week, the group says.
Indications of a new wave in Ontario are given as several G10 countries have already seen a jump in cases driven by Omicron subvariants, such as France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland, among others. .
Get the third dose “now” if you haven’t already, the group says
The group says current evidence does not suggest that BA.5 is more severe than the strains that drove previous waves or that it will lead to the level of hospitalizations seen in earlier times of the pandemic.
“However, any increase comes at a time when hospitals are already dealing with staff shortages and record waiting times, this affects us all,” the advisory board said.
“And if BA.5 spreads widely, we may see an increase in deaths among higher-risk groups, such as the elderly, as was observed during previous waves.”
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Barry Pakes is the health officer for the York region.
The group advises anyone in an indoor public environment full of people to wear a high-quality mask and ventilate as much as possible by opening doors and windows for airflow.
Anyone over the age of 18 who has not received a third dose of a vaccine against COVID-19 should “get it now,” the group says.
Anyone 60 years of age or older or immunocompromised should also take their fourth dose now, he says, noting that while updated vaccines targeting newer variants may be available this fall, “it makes sense to get vaccines for which you are eligible for now “.
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COVID is on the rise in Ontario and the new BA.5 subvariant is expected to soon become the dominant strain in the province, says Dr. Fahad Razak, head of Ontario’s COVID-19 scientific advisory board. Dr. Sohal Goyal, chief physician at a “COVID, Cold and Flu Clinic” in Mississauga, says he is seeing an increase in patients.
“You can be re-infected with BA.5 even if you have recently been infected with a previous strain,” the group says. “Non-serious infections can still disrupt your life and increase your long-term risk of COVID.”
Providing a clear and complete picture of the state of COVID-19 has become increasingly difficult in recent months, after the provincial government restricted laboratory testing and stopped publishing school-related data.
On June 11, the province also switched to weekly COVID-19 data reports after more than two years of daily updates.