Canada has entered a fourth wave, doctors warn as cOVID-19 cases rise
the rise across Canada after a summer drop, doctors say the country has entered a fourth wave of the pandemic. Canada’s seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases is nearing 1,300, up 60 per cent from last week. The bulk of new infections are in British Columbia, which reported more than 1,000 new infections between Sunday and Tuesday, followed by Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Dr. Fahad Razak, an internal medicine physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, said Canada is now in a fourth wave. “From mid-July to mid-August, there’s been a four-fold increase [in cases],” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday, adding that he is grateful cases are nowhere near figures seen during the third wave. Razak warned “a wave can happen very, very quickly” with the more infectious Delta variant of the virus. “You can have really explosive growth,” he said, adding that that’s what’s playing out in United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands right now. Dr. Peter Juni, the scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, also warned Canada is in a fourth wave. “We can’t see any reopening considering right now,” he told CP24, referring to Ontario reopening. “We need to be very careful that we don’t have further explosive growth.” But Juni said the vaccine rollout is what differentiates this wave compared to previous ones in Canada.
Right now, unvaccinated people make up the bulk of new cases. Statistics Canada data show that unvaccinated people have made up 90 per cent of all COVID-19 cases, since the vaccine rollout began in December. Juni urged those still on the fence to get their shot, as they’re the most likely to be hospitalized with serious illness.