Despite record high case numbers in recent days, the latest wave of COVID-19 is far from becoming a repeat of the pandemic’s early days, one infectious disease expert says.
“What this is showing is that we have this mild virus right now, for the most part, especially if you’re vaccinated, ripping through the population and that’s going to cause a lot of — and I mean this in a good way — immunity,” Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious diseases specialist with Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., said Tuesday in a interview with CTV’s Your Morning.
“And I think that this is actually a different step. So I think people are thinking we’re back in March 2020, but this is very far from that.”
Chakrabarti says after this current wave, he expects the COVID-19 situation to move to a more “endemic” or “low-grade phase.”
“But I think that this is actually, believe it or not, good news. But again, if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet that’s the best defence we have against the virus and I urge you to do so.”
Canada has seen a steep rise in COVID-19 cases throughout the month of December, as more people move indoors and gather for the holidays, with the country’s seven-day rolling average for new daily cases sitting at more than 19,600 as of Monday, according to data tracked by CTVNews.ca.
The rise in cases comes amid the spread of the new Omicron variant. While believed to be more transmissible and able to evade some vaccine protection compared to the previous Delta variant, evidence has emerged that it may result in less severe illness and reduce the chance of being hospitalized. However, experts are warning that Omicron still poses great risk to the unvaccinated.
Chakrabarti and others have spoken about the importance of considering other important metrics such as hospitalizations and per cent positivity alongside new cases.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist and faculty member at the University of Toronto, told CTV’s Your Morning earlier this month that monitoring hospitalizations and hospital capacity is “extremely important” given Canada’s “pretty limited ICU capacity,” adding there is “no one metric that tells the whole story.”
At this point in the year, Chakrabarti says respiratory viruses will cause hospital admissions, which was known even before COVID-19 emerged.
He said the current low number of ICU admissions is “actually quite a good thing.”
“… Given that our hospitals are relatively decompressed this late into the season, and the fact that I think that this COVID wave will start to crash and come down very soon, I think we’re in a very good position,” he said.
“I know it doesn’t feel like that based on what we’re hearing, but I think that we are in that situation.”
Chakrabarti added that even though the Omicron variant can cause hospital admissions, it appears to be causing far fewer admissions in intensive care.
“And that’s big, because our hospital work beds have more capacity than ICU.”
HOSPITALIZATIONS AND INTENSIVE CARE
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott reported Tuesday on Twitter that 491 people were in hospital due to COVID-19 in the province, with 187 in intensive care units.
Hospitalizations tend to lag behind reports of new cases, and publicly available data from the Ontario government shows hospitalizations have increased steadily, but remain far below the highs of the more than 2,000 in hospital, including more than 800 in ICUs back in late April and early May. At the same point in 2020, roughly 1,000 people were in hospital some days, with more than 200 people in intensive care.
Unvaccinated Canadians continue to be disproportionately represented in ICU.
Since Dec. 1, 141 people have died from COVID-19 in Ontario as of Dec. 24, or an average of about six people per day.
VACCINES MAKING ‘DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE’
Speaking on CTV News Channel on Sunday, Dr. Martha Fulford, an infectious disease specialist at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ont., and an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University, said a lot of people who are currently testing positive for COVID-19 are not getting sick.
“What we have right now is a very high number of positive PCR tests, but the hospitalization rate actually is fairly flat, as is our ICU rate,” she said.
“So I think for the province, one of the things we need to start reporting really accurately is whether or not people are being admitted because of COVID or just with a positive test, because of course everybody gets screened.”
Fulford said we also have to be “very realistic” in that hospital admissions are “never going to be at zero” given that it is respiratory tract season.
“For me, it’s always been that balanced approach,” she said.
The focus, Fulford said, needs to shift to how many patients are being admitted to hospital due to COVID-19, which she says is a “very different number” from total case counts and also a “much less alarming number.”
Fulford pointed to data to help people distinguish between Omicron and the common cold, which she said “tells us that it’s pretty mild.”
For vulnerable adults, namely seniors, those who live in congregate care settings and people with many co-morbidities, who were always at risk of severe disease, Fulford says vaccinations have made a “dramatic difference” in reducing the risk of hospitalization and death.
“Vaccines don’t make a virus go away, they stop severe disease, and I think that’s the message and the balance that we have to try to achieve in our communication,” she said.
TORONTO – Ochai Agbaji’s relatively small stature won’t stop him from defending some of the biggest and best forwards in the NBA.
All-star forwards Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were Agbaji’s main defensive assignments in the Toronto Raptors’ 119-118 pre-season victory over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. Those are tough marks for the six-foot-five Agbaji, who gives up an inch to Brown and three to Tatum, but the Raptors’ forward is up for the challenge.
“I embrace that every single night,” said Agbaji. “That’s the fun in this, showing up and having those matchups, having the defending champs and knowing that you got to turn it up to a different level.
“It’s just always fun, whatever matchup it is, whether it’s them or Kevin Durant or whoever it is, it’s just always fun to match up with them.”
Agbaji averaged 6.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 27 games for the Raptors last season after Toronto acquired him in a trade with the Utah Jazz on Feb. 8. He was listed as a shooting guard for all of those games — his natural position — but on the relatively undersized Raptors, he’ll spend most of this coming season playing against bigs.
“It’s got to be a helpers’ mentality on defence,” said Agbaji. “Everyone’s obviously in that helping mindset ready to take cover whenever their man is in a post-up situation or gets beat off the ball.
“That’s just how it is and it’s got to be a collective effort every night.”
Brown averaged 23 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in his third all-star campaign last season. Tatum garnered MVP votes and was named an all-star for the fifth consecutive year as he averaged 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 4.9 assists last season.
Despite battling against two scoring juggernauts, Agbaji had a game-best plus-29 defensive rating on Tuesday and limited them to below-average points with Brown getting 19 and Tatum 24.
Agbaji scored 16 points, five rebounds, and three assists Tuesday. Those points came on 7 of 11 shooting, including going 1 for 4 on three-point attempts.
“For me, the priority is what he’s doing defensively, and he affected the game, and in a big, big way,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “Tonight, he was also able to score in transition and create those opportunities.
“He can do so many other things that can affect our game (besides) shooting.”
The Raptors face the Nets in Brooklyn on Friday for their final pre-season game.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
It will be coach by committee for the Canadian women’s soccer team’s upcoming friendly with Spain, in the absence of suspended coach Bev Priestman.
Former Canadian international Diana Matheson joins returning assistant coaches Andy Spence, Jen Herst and Neil Wood in the coaching ensemble for the Oct. 25 game in Almendralejo, Spain
Matheson, co-founder of the fledgling Northern Super League, is serving in an interim team support role. The staff will also include Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite head coach Katie Collar, as an interim technical assistant, andinterim performance analyst Maryse Bard-Martel.
Canada Soccer says the interim coaching staff “will support the team on a collective basis for the October window.”
Priestman was handed a one-year suspension from soccer by FIFA in the wake of the Paris Olympic drone-spying scandal.
The Canadian women are ranked sixth in the world while Spain, the reigning World Cup champion, is No. 3.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024
REGINA – Saskatchewan New Democratic Leader Carla Beck was on the campaign trail Tuesday promising better health care, while the Saskatchewan Party’s Scott Moe proposed to continue withholding federal carbon levy payments.
Beck told a news conference she would hire 800 health-care workers in areas that are the most in need if she becomes premier on Oct. 28.
She previously announced an NDP government would spend $1.1 billion on health care over four years, with much of those dollars for hiring and improving working conditions.
More than 4,000 professionals left the health-care field last year in Saskatchewan, the highest rate in any province, she said.
“This has led to emergency room closures, service blackouts and, in the most severe cases, instances of patients dying in our province before they get the care that they need,” Beck said.
“This simply has to stop.”
Beck made the commitment alongside Kayla Deics, a Regina woman recently diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.
Deics said she had to go to Calgary to get a biopsy to confirm the cancer, as wait times were too long in Saskatchewan. She paid $2,000 out of pocket, she added.
“If I would have trusted the Saskatchewan health-care system and waited until 2025 for my original biopsy in Regina, I’ll be frank in saying this, I wouldn’t be alive to make that appointment,” she said.
“This is not how health care should be.”
Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe has said he would broaden the health-care plan his government announced two years ago. He has said 1,400 recent nursing grads have been hired since then.
In a news release Tuesday, Moe also said he would continue withholding federal carbon levy payments to Ottawa on home heating.
Moe said by not remitting the levy, the average household would save $480 next year.
Earlier this year, the Saskatchewan government stopped paying the federal carbon charge on natural gas, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals exempted home-heating oil users, who are mainly in Atlantic Canada, from paying.
Moe called Trudeau’s decision unfair, saying all forms of home heating should be exempt.
Ottawa and Saskatchewan later reached an agreement, with the federal government securing half of what was owed until the dispute could be resolved.
Beck said she would be prepared to withhold carbon levy payments but that the province should still secure an exemption.
“We need a different system that doesn’t have a consumer-based carbon tax,” she said.
“We haven’t seen (Moe) get a better deal with the federal government.”
Also Tuesday, an NDP candidate found himself in hot water for song lyrics released 10 years ago.
Phil Smith, a former musician and the candidate for Estevan-Big Muddy, sang songs containing expletives referring to women and their bodies. He also rapped about drugs and crime.
Smith apologized after the Saskatchewan Party quoted some of the lyrics in a news release, calling them “misogynistic.”
“I said things in my 20s that I don’t believe now whatsoever,” he said in a statement.
“I experienced a horrifying incident several years ago where a gun was pulled on me, and this made me realize I was on the wrong path and that I needed to change my life for the better.”
Smith said he’s committed to taking action to end gender-based discrimination.
Asked about the lyrics, Beck said she wasn’t aware of them.
Instead, she took aim at criminal issues involving former Saskatchewan Party government members. One was ejected from government caucus last year for charges of procuring sex, which were stayed when he took an alternative measures program.
Another former government member still faces an assault by choking charge.
“Song lyrics are one thing,” Beck said. “Getting caught up in a sex trafficking sting or having assault charges for choking and assault — those are another thing.
“If that’s what (Moe) wants to focus on, he can fill his boots. But we’re focused on the things that Saskatchewan people need.”
Beck and Moe are scheduled to participate in a televised debate Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2024.
