It was the beginning of a third wave of the pandemic of coronavirus, which showed evidence of the increasing number of cases, hospitalization and the spread of variants in Canada’s largest province, on Monday.
“We’re in the third wave. The numbers are slowly going up, they’re not going as fast as predicted by the modelers,” said Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer for Ontario. He added, “We’re now starting to see impacts on our hospital rates, our ICU admissions are up again, our hospital admissions are up again.”
It was a nervous news for a province where since the late last year, the majority of residents have been locked.
Canadian officials from public health warned that the deployment of vaccines would not take place quickly enough to stop a potentially devastating third wave, which would further stress hospital capacity in other areas of the country.
“COVID-19 activity has leveled off at a high level since mid-February and average daily case counts are now on the rise,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, on Monday.
“While vaccine programs accelerate, it will be important to maintain a high degree of caution. Any easing of public health measures must be done slowly with enhanced testing, screening, and genomic analysis to detect variants of concern,” she said in a statement.
Since the onset of the pandemic over 938,000 cases have been reported in Canada alleged or confirmed and over 22,000 have been recorded deaths.
Officials of public health have warned for weeks that Canada has risked a third wave of more transmissible versions that can lead to severe disease in some cases. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned last month that a third wave was a possibility, as the country was facing severe vaccine deficiencies.
“We have to keep taking strong public health measures,” Trudeau said during a Covid-19 update in February, because “otherwise we could see a third wave that is even worse than the second or the first, and I know that’s not the news you want to hear.”
He said on Tuesday that vaccine shipments are expected to continue ramping up. The most doses received in one week since the approval of four emergency vaccine applicants in Canada are expected to be 2 million this Woche.
However, officials throughout the country now face the possibility of a large number of hospitalizations and deaths without vaccines being distributed in a timely manner.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned last month that a third wave was a possibility, as the country was facing severe vaccine deficiencies.
Trudeau said during a Covid 19 update in February, “We have to keep on taking strong public health measures because otherwise we can see a three wave that is even worse than the second or the first, and I know that it’s not the news you want to hear.”
He said on Tuesday that vaccine shipments are expected to continue ramping up. The most doses received in one week since the approval of four emergency vaccine applicants in Canada are expected to be 2 million this Woche.
However, officials throughout the country now face the possibility of a large number of hospitalizations and deaths without vaccines being distributed in a timely manner.
The province of Alberta also stated on Monday that reopenings would be postponed, because Covid-19 has also seen an increase in hospitalizations.
“Half of those who are in a hospital bed for COVID are under the age of 65 and almost 90% of those in an ICU for Covid are under 65. Most of them wouldn’t be there if they had been vaccinated at this time,” Tyler Shandro, Alberta’s health minister said during a Covid-19 update Monday.
While the first variant of B.1.1.7 found in the UK has fuelled a growth in case of Alberta, the health minister has also blame the federal government for not providing the number of people who are currently at risk of severe outcomes with enough vaccine doses in time.
The two countries concluded a deal with the US releasing 1,5 million of its AstraZeneca doses to Canada over the coming days, and Canada was given a boost from the Biden administration last week. The US stores AstraZeneca until the FDA approval is obtained, which is not expected until the next month or so.
