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 ICUs, which are usually late indicators, and provincially sewage is reduced.” 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. Based on the latest figures released by the province on Thursday, however, there were 80 deaths linked to COVID-19 during the week, making it the second deadliest of the seventh wave so far. Moore says he expects the overall risk and health impact to continue to decline through August. He also says that a fall wave of COVID-19 may not be as bad as he would have predicted a few months ago, given that any human being infected with the Omicron variant, coupled with protection from high immunization rates and the fact that new variant of concern has yet to appear. 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 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine over three weeks — 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.
