TORONTO – Ontario’s seventh wave of COVID-19 has peaked, the province’s chief medical officer of health said Friday.
Dr. Kieran Moore said in an interview that key indicators are peaking or already trending down.
“I think we’ve already started the downward spiral,” he said.
“It’s always easier to look back and say where we were, but from our perspective just today, it’s definitely stabilized and we’re seeing a reduction in the overall number of people being hospitalized, stabilization in the ICU, which are usually late indicators. and at the provincial level, wastewater is decreasing.”
Public Health Ontario says COVID-19 case rates fell in 22 of Ontario’s 34 health facilities for the week ending July 30, with the positive rate falling slightly each week and hospital admissions falling to 306 compared to with 463 the previous week.
There were 46 deaths from COVID-19 for the week ending July 30, compared to 75 the previous week.
Moore said he expects the overall risk and health impact to continue to decline through August.
Heading into the fall, a new wave of COVID-19 may not be as bad as Moore would have predicted a few months ago, he said, although cooler weather prompting more indoor activity increases the risk.
Many Ontarians are already infected with the Omicron variant — seroprevalence studies suggest half the population has natural immunity, he said — and that combined with high vaccination rates and the fact that a new variant of concern has yet to emerge everything is good. Moore said.
“It will be difficult for a very similar virus to spread through our populations,” he said.
“So we’re scanning around the world with Public Health Ontario, Public Health Canada to try to see if there’s a new variant out there that poses a risk to us. But we see a period of calm in the coming weeks and months because we are unable to see a new threat on the horizon at this time.”
There is still a risk of reinfection with Omicron, Moore said, but people who have been vaccinated and infected are much better protected than people who are infected but unvaccinated.
Ontarians age 18 and older were eligible for a fourth three-week dose of the COVID-19 vaccine — previously only available to people age 60 and older, as well as immunocompromised or Indigenous adults. Just under 16 per cent of Ontario adults have received four doses, Moore said.
In the particularly vulnerable population of people age 80 and older, about 61 percent have received a fourth dose, Moore said.
Also, vaccines for children under five became available a week ago, and Moore said 9,000 have received their first shot. This is about one per cent of the total population in Ontario in this age group.
“This was expected in August to be low as parents are busy on holiday and certainly expect these numbers to increase as we head into autumn,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 5, 2022.
title: “Covid 19 Ontario S Top Doctor Says 7Th Wave Has Peaked "
ShowToc: true
date: “2022-12-10”
author: “Jerry Burkhardt”
TORONTO – Ontario’s seventh wave of COVID-19 has peaked, the province’s chief medical officer of health said Friday.
Dr. Kieran Moore said in an interview that key indicators are peaking or already trending down.
“I think we’ve already started the downward spiral,” he said.
“It’s always easier to look back and say where we were, but from our perspective just today, it’s definitely stabilized and we’re seeing a reduction in the overall number of people being hospitalized, stabilization in the ICU, which are usually late indicators. and at the provincial level, wastewater is decreasing.”
Public Health Ontario says COVID-19 case rates fell in 22 of Ontario’s 34 health facilities for the week ending July 30, with the positive rate falling slightly each week and hospital admissions falling to 306 compared to with 463 the previous week.
There were 46 deaths from COVID-19 for the week ending July 30, compared to 75 the previous week.
Moore said he expects the overall risk and health impact to continue to decline through August.
Heading into the fall, a new wave of COVID-19 may not be as bad as Moore would have predicted a few months ago, he said, although cooler weather prompting more indoor activity increases the risk.
Many Ontarians are already infected with the Omicron variant — seroprevalence studies suggest half the population has natural immunity, he said — and that combined with high vaccination rates and the fact that a new variant of concern has yet to emerge everything is good. Moore said.
“It will be difficult for a very similar virus to spread through our populations,” he said.
“So we’re scanning around the world with Public Health Ontario, Public Health Canada to try to see if there’s a new variant out there that poses a risk to us. But we see a period of calm in the coming weeks and months because we are unable to see a new threat on the horizon for now.”
There is still a risk of reinfection with Omicron, Moore said, but people who have been vaccinated and infected are much better protected than people who are infected but unvaccinated.
Ontarians age 18 and older were eligible for a fourth three-week dose of the COVID-19 vaccine — previously only available to people age 60 and older, as well as immunocompromised or Indigenous adults. Just under 16 per cent of Ontario adults have received four doses, Moore said.
In the particularly vulnerable population of people age 80 and older, about 61 percent have received a fourth dose, Moore said.
Also, vaccines for children under five became available a week ago, and Moore said 9,000 have received their first shot. This is about one per cent of the total population in Ontario in this age group.
“This was expected in August to be low as parents are busy on holiday and certainly expect these numbers to increase as we head into autumn,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 5, 2022.