adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

News

Canada is flying blind with Omicron as COVID-19 testing drops off a cliff – CBC News

Published

3 years ago

 on


Canada has lost sight of the true size of its pandemic, with the number of people infected with COVID-19 now a mystery, as the highly infectious Omicron variant overwhelms testing capacity across the country.

Omicron is causing a never-before-seen surge in COVID-19 that has prompted provinces to reinstate curfews and gathering restrictions, shutter bars and restaurants and move schooling back online in a desperate attempt to mitigate the impact on hospitals.

Yet those case levels are about to drop off a cliff — not because of the flood of new public health restrictions across the country that haven’t yet taken effect, but because health officials have simply stopped testing the majority of Canadians for COVID-19. 

So how do we track the impact Omicron is having across Canada? And how will we know whether public health restrictions are working if officials aren’t collecting accurate data?

“Omicron is moving so quickly that it has become pretty much impossible to pin down the full extent of spread in real time,” said Dr. David Naylor, who led the federal inquiry into the 2003 SARS epidemic and co-chairs the federal government’s COVID-19 immunity task force.

“PCR testing capacity is overwhelmed,” Naylor said. “Rapid antigen tests [RAT] are inconsistently available. Those with positive RAT results often have no way to register them let alone confirm them.”

A doctor administers a COVID-19 test at North York General Hospital in May 2020. Case levels are about to drop off a cliff because the majority of Canadians aren’t being tested for COVID-19 due capacity issues. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Watch hospital admissions closely 

Public health experts and epidemiologists agree COVID-19 hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions have replaced case numbers as some of the most important metrics for understanding Omicron’s impact on the health-care system and severity of illness it causes. 

“It was always what was going to happen,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, a medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital who worked on the front lines of the SARS epidemic in 2003. 

“We were always going to switch from cases to hospitalizations as a measure of how well we were doing.” 

But even those numbers can be skewed with Omicron. Data shows while the variant is highly contagious, vaccines still offer protection against serious illness and those infected are less likely to wind up in hospital than people with the Delta variant. 

That may lead to a shift in focus to hospitalizations, because the biggest concern with Omicron is that it’s spreading like wildfire and leaving more people exposed to potentially serious outcomes that could strain the health-care system. 

A recent report from Public Health Ontario found that while the risk of hospitalization and death was 54 per cent lower for Omicron than Delta — the fact that it is infecting so many more people may actually lead to an overall increase in hospitalizations. 

WATCH | Canadian hospitals brace for rising COVID-19 admissions, staff shortages:

Staff shortages, rising COVID-19 admissions add strain on Canadian hospitals

2 days ago

Duration 4:22

Hospitals across Canada are bracing themselves for rising admissions as Omicron-related staff shortages add extra pressure to the variant’s wave. 4:22

Omicron is also better at dodging immune protection from vaccines and prior infection than previous variants, dealing a massive blow to the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against infection — but not necessarily against severe illness. 

A new preprint study from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) in Toronto, which has not yet been peer reviewed, found two doses does not provide adequate prevention against Omicron infection and three doses was just 37 per cent effective — but the vaccines still protected well against hospitalizations. 

And as case counts creep into the tens of thousands, many provinces have scaled back testing and reimposed restrictions while officials estimate the true number of people infected could be in the hundreds of thousands per day in the coming weeks.

“It’s going to be a mess. We have, once again, waited too long,” said McGeer.

“It’s really looking like the sheer numbers are going to stress, honestly, not just the hospitals but the ICU … and in the next two or three weeks from now, the hospital system is going to be really, really stressed again.” 

WATCH | Why symptoms of COVID-19 are changing with omicron:

COVID-19: What are the new symptoms?

2 days ago

Duration 5:41

Infectious diseases specialists Dr. Danielle Martin and Dr. Zain Chagla answer questions about COVID-19, including how to recognize and respond to new and evolving symptoms. 5:41

Monitor test positivity rate

Another useful metric for examining the burden of COVID-19 across Canada is the test positivity rate — which doesn’t measure the number of individual cases but the percentage of tests that come back with a positive result. 

Canada’s national test positivity rate has sat at an astonishingly high 25 per cent over the past week, meaning one in four Canadians who have been tested are positive.

“Test positivity is going to probably be the only thing that matters,” said Dr. Alexander Wong, an infectious diseases physician at Regina General Hospital and associate professor of infectious diseases at Saskatoon’s University of Saskatchewan.

“It’s going to be really key to get an understanding of where provinces and territories are at with regards to their peaks.” 

When that rate starts to come down, we’ll get a better understanding of whether our Omicron-driven wave has peaked, but Wong said it’s important to keep in mind that even that number can be affected by access to testing. 

“In Saskatchewan, which is probably the least advanced relative to all other Canadian jurisdictions with regards to Omicron, even our testing capacity is pretty much overrun at this point,” he said. “And that’s just going to continue to worsen in the coming days.” 

Naylor said the test positivity rate is also affected by changes in test-seeking behaviour, meaning the number of people testing positive and the total number of cases are now both compromised due to a lack of access and a desire to even get tested. 

People wait in line for a walk in PCR COVID-19 test site in Toronto on Dec. 22, 2021. Canada’s national test positivity rate sits at an astonishingly high 25 per cent over the past week, meaning one in four Canadians who have been tested are positive. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)

“We aren’t able to test the majority of people anymore who are symptomatic. We stopped testing those who have been exposed. We have significantly reduced any type of asymptomatic testing,” said Dr. Dominik Mertz, an infectious diseases physician and associate professor of medicine at Hamilton’s McMaster University.

“The case numbers become even more meaningless.” 

Look to sewage for virus presence

One other tool for understanding the extent of COVID-19 levels in the community is through wastewater testing, which examines sewage for the presence of the virus to determine how much is circulating within the population at a given time. 

While not a perfect assessment of the specific number of cases or the severity of disease, wastewater testing can help specific regions understand when the risk of exposure is high. 

“It can really show trends quite well,” said Sarah Dorner, a water quality expert and  professor at Polytechnique Montréal. “So if you’re really seeing rising numbers, it’s very much associated with rising cases.

“And that’s really what’s important in the current context because right now whatever’s in the wastewater is what’s happening in your community.” 

Dorner said such trends allow policymakers to determine when to act and to alert the population on where to protect themselves most from transmission. 

“It’s low-cost, high-impact and high-accuracy,” said Raywat Deonandan, a global health epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa. 

“It won’t be as timely and won’t be as personal but in many ways it gives a better sense of the true impact of a disease on the community because it’s getting everyone — not just those who got tested.”

A researcher tests wastewater in a sewer outside Risley Hall, a residence at Halifax’s Dalhousie University, as part of the wastewater testing project in Nova Scotia. (Submitted by Graham Gagnon)

Wastewater surveillance has been used sporadically in countries around the world to monitor COVID-19 levels throughout the pandemic, but has been slow to gain mainstream global acceptance because of its limitations compared to case numbers. 

“It’s not perfect,” said Eric Arts, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London. “But it’s better than saying ‘13,000 cases today,’ when it’s probably three times more.” 

Dorner said Montreal’s wastewater provided a “very clear signal” that Omicron was heavily circulating in the population in December — before testing would have picked it up. 

Because the data is so readily available, with many public health labs across the country doing the testing, Dorner said she hopes Canadians will soon be able to use it to assess their personal risk level. 

But public health units across Canada have been slow to release wastewater data to the public to determine the level of virus being picked up in sewage, despite using the data to inform their own decision making. 

“We’re expected to kind of move on to managing all of our risks on a personal basis, because the health care system isn’t doing testing and tracing,” said Dorner, who had been helping run a wastewater pilot program in Quebec until funding ended last month. 

“So how does the individual access the information they need?”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

News

Mitchell throws two TD passes as Ticats earn important 37-21 home win over Redblacks

Published

5 hours ago

 on

September 14, 2024

By

HAMILTON – It remains faint but Bo Levi Mitchell and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats still have a playoff pulse.

Mitchell threw two touchdown passes as Hamilton defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 37-21 in the CFL’s annual Hall of Fame game Saturday afternoon. The Ticats (4-9) earned a second straight win to move to within six points of the third-place Toronto Argonauts (7-6) in the East Division.

Hamilton visits Toronto on Friday night.

“Obviously they’re (wins) huge now,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t do ourselves any favours by getting into this position and not being able to really control our own destiny.

“But right now, we need certain people to win at certain times. Our job is to go out there and try to win the next five, then the next three after that.”

Mitchell finished 20-of-27 passing for 299 yards and an interception. He entered weekend action leading the CFL in passing yards (3,383) and TD strikes (21).

Greg Bell’s 15-yard TD run at 11:30 of the fourth and two-point convert put Hamilton up 36-21 after backup Jeremiah Masoli led Ottawa on two scoring drives. Following a 13-yard TD strike to Andre Miller at 2:53, Masoli found Dominique Rhymes on a 10-yard touchdown pass at 7:43 before Khalan Laborn’s two-point convert cut Hamilton’s lead to 29-21.

“When you’re scoring from (15) yards out on a run play, that makes offence easy,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of those things when you get down there as a quarterback, it takes you sometimes five, eight, 10 plays and now it’s ‘OK, now we have to create some stuff and find something.’

“When you hand the ball off and you’re scoring from (15) yards, it makes the offence really easy.”

Ottawa (8-4-1) would have clinched a playoff spot with a victory.

Ottawa committed six turnovers (three interceptions, two fumbles, once on downs) before an announced Tim Hortons Field gathering of 22,119. Lawrence Woods III also returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown at 11:51 of the first quarter that put Hamilton ahead 10-3.

“You’ve got to bring your best every single week and this wasn’t our best, all of us, from coaches to the players,” said Ottawa head coach Bob Dyce. “If you don’t play great for four quarters, I don’t care who you’re playing you’re not going to have a successful day.

“We should’ve made the tackle (on Woods), we had him wrapped up it’s that simple. Even though we didn’t make the play on that, there should’ve been extra bodies there to clean it up when he did break the tackle.”

Hamilton also tied the season series with Ottawa 1-1. The teams meet again at TD Place on Oct. 25.

“If we didn’t turn it over today I would’ve said we played really well offensively and that to me is what the biggest difference is,” said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. “Even the turnovers today (interception, fumble), at least they were in their end and we weren’t giving them a short field.

“The biggest play of the game was Woodsie’s return. It got us jump-started, gave us the lead and we were kind of off after that.”

Ottawa starter Dru Brown was 17-of-27 passing for 164 yards and an interception. Masoli entered late in the third and finished 13-of-19 passing for 183 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, but Dyce said Brown will start next weekend against Montreal (10-2-1), which earned a 19-19 tie Saturday night with Calgary (4-8-1).

The Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s ’24 class of S.J. Green, Chad Owens, Weston Dressler, Vince Goldsmith and Vince Coleman, along with builders Ray Jauch and Ed Laverty (posthumously), was honoured at halftime. All were enshrined Friday night.

Steven Dunbar Jr. and Ante Litre had Hamilton’s other touchdowns. Marc Liegghio kicked two field goals, three converts and two singles.

Ottawa’s Lewis Ward booted two field goals and a convert.

Mitchell culminated a five-play, 96-yard march with a 20-yard TD pass to Litre at 13:34 of the third. It followed Jonathan Moxey’s interception.

Liegghio’s single at 7:05 of the third put Hamilton up 22-6.

Mitchell’s 54-yard TD strike to Dunbar at 14:18 of the second staked Hamilton to its 21-6 halftime lead. The advantage was well-deserved as the Ticats had more first downs (12-six), net offensive yards (260-144) and scored on both offence and special teams.

Mitchell was 14-of-20 passing for 210 yards and a TD, but his interception cost Hamilton at least a field-goal attempt. Dunbar had five receptions for 113 yards and the touchdown.

Brown completed 13-of-21 passes for 127 yards.

Liegghio’s missed 47-yard attempt went for the single at 12:45 to put Hamilton ahead 14-6. It followed a Kiondre Smith catch that was ruled incomplete and at the very least cost the Ticats a first down that would’ve kept the drive alive.

Ward’s 30-yard kick at 9:15 had pulled Ottawa to within 13-6.

Liegghio’s 19-yard field goal at 5:13 pushed Hamilton’s lead to 13-3. It followed the defence stopping Ottawa’s Dustin Crum on third-and-one, giving the Ticats possession at the Redblacks 40.

Liegghio’s 47-yard field goal opened the scoring at 2:42 before Ward tied in with a 24-yard boot at 8:44.

UP NEXT

Redblacks: Host the Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1) next Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tiger-Cats: Visit the Toronto Argonauts (7-6) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

Toronto FC downs Austin FC to pick up three much-needed points in MLS playoff push

Published

6 hours ago

 on

September 14, 2024

By

TORONTO – Needing three points to keep their playoff push alive, Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio and Deandre Kerr stepped up with first-half goals against Austin FC on Saturday with goalkeeper Sean Johnson doing his bit at the other end.

A 76th-minute goal by Austin’s Owen Wolff made for a nervy ending but TFC hung on for a 2-1 win.

While Toronto (11-15-3) remains on the Major League Soccer playoff bubble in eighth place in the Eastern Conference (the eighth- and ninth-place teams in each conference square off in a wild-card playoff with the winner facing the top seed in the conference), other results went their way.

Seventh-place Charlotte, 10th-place Atlanta and 11th-place Philadelphia all lost while ninth-place D.C. United tied.

Toronto midfielder Alonso Coello called it “a game we had to win.”

“It’s a big win … To see that fight tonight was important,” added coach John Herdman.

Austin (9-12-7) came into the game in 11th place in the West, two points below ninth-place Minnesota. The Texas side has won just one of its last six league games (1-4-1).

Austin outshot Toronto 7-6 (6-2 edge in shots on target) in the first half but found itself trailing 2-0 at the break as Toronto took advantage of its chances and the visitors didn’t in their first-ever visit to BMO Field, before an announced crowd of 25,538.

Toronto had a dream start, catching Austin on the counterattack in the seventh minute. A sliding Austin player dispossessed an onrushing Kerr, who had been set free by a long ball from Coello, but the ball bounced to Osorio, who beat goalkeeper Brad Stuver with a rising shot.

It was the Toronto captain’s second goal of the season in league play and his 65th for TFC in all competitions. Only Sebastian Giovinco (83) and Jozy Altidore (79) scored more in Toronto colours.

TFC went ahead on another counterattack in the 30th minute after an Austin giveaway. Osorio found Richie Laryea outpacing his marker and the wingback unselfishly sent a perfect low cross across goal for Kerr to knock home for his third of the season.

Wolff, the son of Austin head coach Josh Wolff, made it interesting with his late strike. The 19-year-old U.S. youth international, controlling a long ball, beat defender Raoul Petretta and then waited out Johnson before slotting it home for his first of the season.

Toronto survived a nervy six minutes of stoppage time as Austin pressed for the equalizer. Austin outshot Toronto 14-9 (8-3 in shots on target) and had 52.5 per cent possession.

The win evened Toronto’s home record at 7-7-0, while Austin slipped to 3-8-3 on the road.

It was a costly evening for Austin with defender Brendan Hines-Ike, midfielder Jhojan Valencia and star attacker Sebastian Driussi allpicking up cautions to miss Wednesday’s game with Los Angeles FC due to yellow-card accumulation.

Toronto defender Shane O’Neill will miss Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus for the same reason. Toronto could be short mid-week, too. The hope is veteran centre back Kevin Long, who missed Saturday’s game after tweaking his hamstring in training, will be good to go.

Toronto has five games remaining, including three more at home as it looks to return to the post-season for the first time since 2020 when it lost to Nashville after extra time at the first hurdle.

It is a challenging road.

TFC hosts Columbus, the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami while playing away at the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire. All but Chicago are in playoff positions.

The only previous meeting between Toronto and Austin was in May 2023, when Zardes scored a 91st-minute winner to give Austin a 1-0 win over visiting Toronto, which was then mired at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. That loss prompted a post-game outburst from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi about TFC’s drab play.

Then-coach Bob Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the next game.

Current coach John Herdman made four changes to his starting 11 with Bernardeschi and Osorio returning from suspension and Coello and Kerr also slotting in. Coello, who had missed the last eight league games with a hamstring injury, was impressive in his 59-minute return.

Both Toronto and Austin suffered home losses last time out going into the international break. Toronto was beaten 3-1 by D.C. United while Austin lost 1-0 to Vancouver.

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

News

CF Montreal finds its groove with 2-1 win over Charlotte

Published

6 hours ago

 on

September 14, 2024

By

MONTREAL – CF Montreal is back in the win column after securing a 2-1 Major League Soccer win over Charlotte FC on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.

Montreal’s form had suffered of late, with just one win in MLS since July, but Laurent Courtois’ squad showed a level of poise and control over the tempo of the game that had not been seen since the beginning of the season.

“What we’ve changed in the last few weeks or months in terms of our methodology or coaching, is nothing. We did the exact thing, We had the exact same words, and we expressed them the exact same way,” said Courtois. “Today, everything just clicked.”

Caden Clark scored for the first time as a Montreal (7-12-9) player in the 23rd minute, in addition to Bryce Duke’s goal three minutes later that ended up being the winner, while Tim Ream found the back of the net for Charlotte (10-10-8).

Montreal had the first major scoring chance of the match after 15 minutes of play. With a free kick roughly 25 metres away from goal, Gabriele Corbo sent a near-perfect shot smashing off the crossbar.

Montreal would continue to dictate the tempo in the opening phase, finding first blood just seven minutes later.

Following a phenomenal triple-save from Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, the ball fell to Clark who volleyed the ball into the wide-open net, picking up his first goal for the club.

“I think you don’t lose the feeling (of scoring), everything happens for a reason, you just can’t lose yourself in the chaos,” said Clark, who had missed a full season due to injury and was briefly without a club, but was grateful for Courtois’ confidence in him.

“(To have a coach’s confidence) is huge and is something I’ve had both ends of so you just can’t take advantage of that in the wrong way. I’m going to keep my discipline with the game plan and keep my head right.”

With momentum completely on their side, the home side doubled the lead just three minutes later. Montreal continued to build up play on the left flank and found a streaking Raheem Edwards in behind the defence who cut the ball back to Duke, sending the Stade Saputo crowd into a frenzy.

Just after the half-hour mark, Charlotte pulled one back through a set piece — something Montreal has struggled defending all season — as Ream rose above everyone at the back post to score his first with his new club.

The second half began in a similar fashion to the end of the first, with Charlotte pressing high up the pitch and forcing several turnovers in dangerous areas. After surviving the pressure, Montreal began to regain control of the game near the hour mark, enjoying the lion’s share of the possession while Charlotte looked to hit back on the counterattack.

“I think when we conceded that goal we were like ‘here we go again.’ 2-1 is a tough lead before halftime … and at the beginning of the half we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and they pressed a bit more, they moved a bit more forward and that opened some gaps,” said captain Samuel Piette.

“I was happy with that, it shows character. At the end of the day, we just wanted the three points and that’s what we got.”

As the game progressed, Charlotte pushed harder to find an equalizer but to no avail. With only one shot on target conceded, the second-worst defence in the league put up an impressive front and confidently rebuffed every single Charlotte attack.

“I’m a big fan of the back five’s performance in their discipline, competitiveness, and synchronization with balls in behind,” said Courtois.

“We can’t explain sometimes in a game it’s not there, they’re capable and today they showed it. Let’s see tomorrow.”

UP NEXT

Both teams are back in action on Sept. 18 away from home as Montreal will look to avenge a 5-0 rout against the New England Revolution while Charlotte visits Orlando City SC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending