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Canada’s COVID-19 infections among adults tripled in early 2022 due to Omicron: study

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TORONTO — The number of Canadian adults infected with COVID-19 tripled during the fifth wave of the pandemic compared with the total number of adults infected in the previous four waves, according to a new study led by Toronto researchers.

More than 5,000 Canadian adults — members of the Angus Reid Forum, a public polling cohort — participated in the fourth phase of the Action to Beat Coronavirus (Ab-C) study. The findings of the study were published as a letter to the editor in The New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday.

The adult participants took a self-administered dried blood spot test between Jan. 15 and March 15, 2022 and sent the blood samples back to the researchers for analysis. The research team then tested the samples for antibodies related to COVID-19.

From those results, the researchers found nearly 30 per cent of Canadian adults were infected during the first Omicron wave of infections compared with roughly 10 per cent who had been infected in the previous four waves.

Of those fifth waveinfections, one million were among the country’s 2.3 million unvaccinated adult population — representing 40 per cent of all unvaccinated adults, the study notes.

Patrick Brown, a lead author of the Ab-C study and biostatistician at the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, said the study is meant to portray a “complete and representative picture” of COVID-19 in the country in the absence of widespread PCR testing and COVID-19 data tracking.

“This is quite important for us to be able to understand COVID in the population,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“The testing data is incomplete and we’ve essentially stopped PCR testing for the most part in Canada, or in Ontario, at least, so having a representative sample of people who receive these test kits is very important to figure out how much COVID there has been and how much immunity we have in the population.”

The study also found that antibody levels were much lower amongst adults with only two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine compared to those with three doses, meaning those with three doses had stronger immunity in the face of the virus.

And amongst the unvaccinated population — including those who had a COVID-19 infection — their antibody levels were “quite” lower than people with three doses of the vaccine, Brown noted.

“(In) Canada, we had quite a bit less COVID-19 than some other countries, especially the U.S. We have less natural protection and we’re really relying on vaccines in Canada to build up immunity in our population,” he said.

“Certainly three doses plus an infection was the maximum protection, but three doses of vaccine certainly gave a very good amount of protection — a big improvement over two doses alone.”

The Ab-C study is a collaboration between Unity Health Toronto, the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Angus Reid Institute and the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health. It’s funded by the federal government through its COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.

The team of researchers has been tracking the pandemic in Canada with periodic polling about lived experience and blood sample collection since May 2020.

Brown said the next phase of the study is already being conducted. The team has started surveying roughly 1,300 Canadian adults who were not infected by the initial Omicron variant known as BA.1 to determine whether they were infected by the Omicron subvariant called BA.2 from March to June 2022.

“We are preparing test kits now to send out our panel of people we’ve come back to several times, and this will be the fifth round of tests we’re sending them to better understand the second wave of Omicron,” he said.

“We found that the number of cases reported by public health isn’t as high as the previous wave, the number of hospitalizations hasn’t risen very much, but there has been a lot of infection … so we’re expecting to see that there’s been quite a lot of COVID throughout the population.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

 

Noushin Ziafati, The Canadian Press

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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September 11, 2024

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.

The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.

Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.

“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”

The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.

A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.

Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.

“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.

Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.

The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.

“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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September 10, 2024

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.

Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.

Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.

The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.

“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.

Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.

Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.

A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast!

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September 10, 2024

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