Most COVID cases detected in city in 18-44 age group
With cases rising at an exponential rate and projections warning hospital beds could be full by early January, Montreal's public health director has implored citizens to limit social contacts in an effort to protect vulnerable people and ease the burden on health-care workers.
Noting that most Montrealers now know someone who has tested positive, Dr. Mylène Drouin called on those who are still healthy to do their part by reaching out to those who are infected and isolated at a difficult time.
“Ask how they're doing,” she said Thursday. “Some are going to be alone during the holidays. Don't hesitate to call them — make sure they're OK, see if they need medicine or food.”
Montreal reported 3,668 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, 90 per cent of which were identified as the Omicron variant, Drouin said during a news conference. There are more than 14,000 known active cases in the city, but given limits on testing, the actual number is far higher, she said.
Between 18 and 20 per cent of people going to testing centres are positive, “which means one in every five people who come,” Drouin said. “This is a level we've never seen before.”
The new wave spurred by the Omicron variant has changed the profile of those getting infected. People in the 18-to-44 age range now account for the majority of cases, at more than 60 per cent.
“It's clearly young adults who are being infected via social contacts and at events,” Drouin said.
Montreal's hardest-hit districts have changed from primarily low-income or congested boroughs to central regions with a high population of young people: Plateau– Mont-royal, Petite-patrie, Mile End, Villeray, downtown and Hochelaga-maisonneuve.
Hospitalizations are up, with 181 beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, 44 of them in intensive care, but the number of deaths has not increased.
“Our hope is to cut transmission just before Christmas to avoid having the spikes we're seeing in the young population spread to older people, like their parents, their grandparents or those with chronic illnesses,” Drouin said.
Montreal's public health department can no longer keep up with contact tracing. Its testing centres are overwhelmed, even though it has increased staffing by 30 per cent. It is giving the following recommendations:
If you have symptoms — fever, cough, sore throat, loss of smell — wear a mask, isolate and get tested, either at a centre or with a rapid test.
■ A positive result on a rapid test is sufficient; there is no need to verify the results at a PCR testing centre.
■ If you're positive, isolate for 10 days from the point you started having symptoms or tested positive.
■ Members of the same household must also isolate for 10 days.
■ Alert anyone you have been in contact with up to 48 hours before symptoms began and ask them to isolate for 10 days if you had been in close contact (which means more than 15 minutes together indoors without a mask — for example, at a party, dinner, out for a beer or while in a car).
■ Don't go to a testing centre just to see if you're safe to go to a party or get-together.
■ Avoid seeing older relatives if possible.
■ Get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Sonia Bélanger, head of the Centre-sud-de-l'île-de-montréal regional health authority, said hospitalizations have gone up 60 per cent in a week. Non-essential health procedures and surgeries are being cancelled to free up at least 550 beds for COVID-19 patients. Medical specialists and family doctors are being asked to help out in vaccination centres, intensive care units and ERS.
The health-care system is at Level 3. If it rises to Level 4, as it did during the first and second waves, it will find ways to free up 1,000 beds.
“We have two priorities,” Bélanger said. “Reinforce our health-care system and increase our capacity to administer third doses.”
Opening hours at some smaller emergency rooms may be reduced to 12 hours a day in order to transfer staff to busier hospitals. The number of surgeries will be reduced by 50 per cent. The health network has designated certain care centres as hot zones that can take in COVID-19 patients from long-term care centres and other seniors' residences. There are also 1,500 places available to take in the homeless as temperatures drop and cases spread.
There are 1,200 health-care workers missing from Montreal's network because they have COVID -19 or have been in contact with a positive case. Another 1,000 workers are off for other reasons.
“It's clear our health-care system will be severely tested in the next days and weeks,” Bélanger said. “Every contact that Montrealers avoid will bring a breath of fresh air for our health-care workers.”