The Ontario medical director of health will make an announcement Wednesday about access to the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines and free rapid antigen testing.
It is expected that Dr. Kieran Moore will provide an update at 11 a.m. at Queen’s Park.
The Ontario government has been under pressure in recent weeks to extend age eligibility to fourth shots and expand the distribution of test kits beyond July 31st.
Moore confirmed to CBC News on July 6 that Ontario is in the midst of another pandemic wave, the seventh in the province.
“Unfortunately, yes, we’re on another wave,” Moore said last Wednesday.
The subvariant Omicron BA.5 and, to a lesser extent, BA.4, is largely driving the latest wave, according to Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. John’s Hospital. Michael of Toronto and Scientific Director of COVID-19 Scientific Advice in Ontario. Table.
“The BA.5 subvariant has mutated to the point that your body doesn’t recognize it and people get infected again,” Razak said last Friday.
“You’re seeing this additional increase start in Ontario, and now it’s started in other parts of Canada as well.”
In its most recent update on the pandemic, released on July 7, the province says 712 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 585 the previous week. There are 110 patients in intensive care due to the virus, compared to 95 the previous week.
Public Health Ontario, in its July 7 weekly epidemiological summary, which contains data through July 2, said the province’s seventh wave of COVID-19 began on June 19.
According to the summary, case rates have increased in 25 of Ontario’s 34 public health units as of July 2 and in all age groups.
The largest jump occurred among children four years of age or younger, and cases in this group increased by 40%. Case rates are still higher among people aged 20 and over and are still higher among people aged 80 and over.
In Ontario, a clear picture of the state of COVID-19 has become increasingly difficult to obtain in recent months after the government restricted laboratory testing and stopped publishing school-related data.
Also on June 11, the province switched to the weekly COVID-19 data report after more than two years of daily updates.