COVID FRUSTRATIONS MOUNTING
Cases rise in Delta-driven fourth wave
At Maisonneuve-rosemont Hospital, nearly all patients with COVID-19 are now young adults who are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated — including some who continue to deny the virus is serious, even while in intensive care.
And patients visiting the eastend Montreal hospital for reasons not related to the virus are increasingly expressing frustrations about the unvaccinated clogging up the health-care system, especially as surgeries continue to be postponed.
For Dr. François Marquis, the hospital's intensive care unit chief, the situation is a reflection of what will be seen across Quebec as the pandemic's fourth wave bears down on the province.
“We're going to get through this, but the question is what consequences will it have for everyone,” Marquis said this week when asked where he sees the situation going.
“In theory, there are still enough unvaccinated people for it to be catastrophic,” he added. “But will that happen? That's what we don't know yet.”
For yet another week, COVID -19 cases and hospitalizations crept back up across the province amid the Delta variant-driven fourth wave.
On Friday, Quebec reported 837 new cases, three new deaths and six new hospitalizations. There are now 95 people in intensive care with COVID-19, the most since May. And the province's seven-day rolling average for new cases has climbed to 775, double what it was a month ago.
Speaking to reporters in Lévis, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé warned there is little wiggle room in the province's hospital system and urged people who haven't yet done so to get vaccinated.
“If I had one message to get across so we can get through this fourth wave, which we're handling pretty well right now — though it is challenging in terms of cases and hospitalizations — it's that those who aren't vaccinated, please do so,” Dubé said.
“We can see it,” he added. “The only people in intensive care are people who aren't vaccinated.”
Though cases are rising across the province, Laval has emerged as one of the areas hardest hit by the fourth wave in Quebec. Despite similar vaccination coverage as the rest of the province, the city is reporting more infections per 100,000 residents than anywhere else, including Montreal.
In an interview this week, Laval's public health director, Dr. Jeanpierre Trépanier, said it's hard to explain why the city is seeing more transmission.
Trépanier said the city's public health department started noticing the increase shortly after the construction holiday ended. He also noted that, unlike last summer when many borders were still closed, more residents travelled this year and likely brought the virus back with them.
“But for reasons that aren't completely understood yet, the fourth wave started in Laval before other regions,” Trépanier said, adding he suspects Laval could prove to be a preview of what's to come elsewhere.
The city has seen an increase in cases among children in recent weeks, a trend expected to continue now that schools have reopened.
In mid-july, about 15 per cent of Laval's new infections were detected among children. That number is now hovering around 35 per cent, with another third of new cases among people in their 20s.
About 88 per cent of the city's eligible residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 82 per cent are fully vaccinated. But as long as young children can't be vaccinated, Trépanier said, it's likely the virus will continue to spread.
That's why he's “impatiently waiting” for vaccination to open to children between the ages of five and 11.
“At one point we'll reach a tipping point where, by adding the people who've been infected and those who are vaccinated, we'll get to the famous herd immunity,” he said. “But if we can vaccinate our youngest, hopefully we can reach that point through vaccination, and not because of how many people have been infected.”