Ontario has entered a summer wave of COVID-19 as hospitalization and wastewater data slowly increase, infectious disease experts say.
“We are in one. It’s the real deal. I don’t know how far it will go, but it’s here, ”Toronto infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTV News Toronto on Monday.
Bogoch points to COVID-19 wastewater data as a central indicator. Throughout June, these data have been increasing. This is followed by a sharp drop in viral activity discovered in Ontario’s wastewater for most of the spring.
Along with wastewater, Bogoch points to an increase in the number of people testing positive for COVID-19. Although testing is limited, the seven-day average of new cases detected by PCR testing increased 34% week-over-week in the province’s most recent data.
“This has been a very reliable indicator, although we are not testing it widely,” Bogoch said. “At least we’re constantly testing.”
He said hospitalizations, which are a delayed indicator of the spread of COVID-19, are also seeing an increase. The latest government data said there are 585 people in Ontario hospitals testing positive for the virus, compared to 486 a week earlier.
“This is largely driven by Omicron’s BA.5 underlining. We know it’s probably the dominant variant right now in most of Canada. And it has the ability to overcome some of the protective immunity we’d get from vaccination or infection recovery, ”he said.
In May, Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s medical director of health, predicted a “low level of endemic activity” throughout the summer followed by higher transmission in the fall due to an increase in indoor activities. But since then, BA.5, the subvariant with the fastest growth rate, has spread rapidly to Ontario.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist in Mississauga, said while BA. 5 has largely taken over the country, it is worth noting the timing of this wave.
“In the summer, the health care system is much better equipped to deal with this and absorb it,” he said.
Compared to the December Omicron wave, Chakrabarti said he does not expect to see the same magnitude.
“We just need to remember the nature of respiratory viruses, especially when they become a little more transmissible and become more immune evasive. There is a balance that is formed between the community and the virus and you see this wave activity,” Chakrabarti explained. .
“This wave will be different and will not be the same intensity as the previous ones.”
Speaking to CP24 on Monday afternoon, the scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 scientific advisory board, did not confirm that Ontario was specifically in another wave of the pandemic, and said only that “the virus has shown to be a really terrible opponent. “
“It has mutated to the point that what is currently circulating in Ontario, Canada and the world is almost unrecognizable compared to what we originally saw,” Dr. Fahad Razak said. “What will happen in the future is really not clear.”
“The fall will be a high risk period for us, because it’s not just about COVID. It’s the other respiratory viruses like the flu, the RSV, so we need to be aware of that,” he said.
Razak urged residents to continue getting their COVID-19 vaccine to better protect themselves from the virus.