COVID-19 case counts break records in Eastern Canada
Canada’s two largest provinces reported record high COVID19 case counts Thursday, as preliminary data from Britain indicated that people with the Omicron variant are up to 70 per cent less likely to need hospitalization than those with the Delta mutation.
Records were also broken in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
In Quebec, the provincial government reported 9,397 new cases and a rise of 28 COVIDrelated hospitalizations, for a total of 473. The province also reported six more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus.
As well, exponential growth in COVID-19 cases was reported in Montreal, where a top health official confirmed that one of every five tests for the virus was coming back positive. Dr. Mylène Drouin said that 60 per cent of the positive cases in Montreal were among people between the ages of 18 and 44, adding that the city’s latest data also confirm that 90 per cent of new infections involved the Omicron variant.
“The message is we are having intense community transmission in Montreal,” Drouin told a news conference. “It’s exponential — it’s touching young adults.”
Another big upswing in cases was reported Thursday in Ontario, with 5,790 new cases detected. That tally was well above the previous single-day high of 4,812 recorded back in April. Canada’s most populous province also confirmed seven new deaths attributed to the virus. In all, 400 people were recovering in hospital, including 136 who were not vaccinated.
Despite the big increase in Ontario, an expert says the latest numbers represent a poor guess because testing is not keeping up with the Omicron-driven fifth wave of the pandemic.
“In all likelihood, you’d have to multiply these numbers at least three or four times to get a sense of what’s actually happening,” said. Dr. Fahad Razaka, a member of the province’s science table.
Meanwhile, the latest findings from the U.K. Health Security Agency add to emerging evidence that Omicron produces milder illness than other variants, though it spreads faster and better evades vaccines.
The agency said that based on cases in the U.K., an individual with Omicron is estimated to be “50 to 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital” when compared with a person infected with the Delta variant.
The agency, however, cautioned that the analysis is preliminary and “highly uncertain” because of the small number of Omicron patients in hospitals and the fact that most cases involved younger age groups.
The research said the protection a vaccine booster shot gives against Omicron infections appears to wane after about 10 weeks, though protection against hospitalization and severe disease is likely to hold up for longer.
The analysis follows two studies, from Imperial College London and Scottish researchers, that found patients with Omicron were between 20 per cent and 68 per cent less likely to require hospital treatment than those with Delta.
“Cautious optimism is perhaps the best way to look at this,” said Manuel Ascano Jr., a biochemist who studies viruses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.