TORONTO – Ontario is in the sixth wave of the pandemic. An epidemiologist, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, specialist in infectious diseases, says so, but above all the numbers seem to say it: in a week, hospitalizations have increased by 23% and at the moment there are 790 patients with Covid-19 present in the hospitals of the province, compared to 655 just 24 hours earlier and 639 a week ago. 

It is also true that 53% of patients went to hospitals for other reasons and tested positive for the virus at the time of the admission test, but it is equally true that, in any case, they are positive. And today’s number is the highest since last March 5, when there were 795 hospitalized in Ontario. The number of people admitted to intensive care is also increasing: of the total 790 patients, in fact, those in ICU are 165 (yesterday they were 158, but the number remains lower – at least for now – than a week ago: 179). 9 deaths recorded today, bringing the total from the beginning of the pandemic to 12,414.

As for infections, Ontario’s analysis laboratories have processed more than 12,300 tests in the last 24 hours, detecting 1.61220 infections, with a positive rate of 14.4%, down from 17.9% the day before yesterday but in increase from 12.2% a week ago. The active and known cases are now 19,354, slightly down from the 19,436 of yesterday, but that the infections are still on the rise is evidenced by the wastewater surveillance data which indicate that the transmission is increasing throughout the province and doubles every 10 days.

For all these reasons, Dr. Isaac Bogoch said today, as we mentioned at the beginning, that the province is in the sixth wave of the pandemic. “It is clear that there are more cases now than a week ago and two weeks ago. We could call it a wave, we just don’t know the size of the wave but it’s there” he told CP24 this morning. “I think it’s fair to say we’ll see an increase (in cases), but it’s not entirely clear how much it will be. great” he added.

A sixth wave “led by subvarient BA.2” is also spoken in Quebec where on Monday two experts said that “there is a sixth wave but it’s not clear how serious it will be”. Dr. Don Vinh of McGill University Health Center has no doubt that the sixth wave is underway, noting that Quebec has seen an increase in outbreaks among the elderly and in long-term care homes, as well as a 60% increase in the number of healthcare workers who are not working due to the virus. “I think these are signs that cannot be ignored and interpreted in any other way than to say that we are already in the sixth wave” he said.

Also according to Benoit Barbeau, virologist at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal, the French-speaking province has entered the sixth wave, but “there is no reason to be alarmed”, thanks to the combination of vaccination and lower severity of the BA.2 sub-variant. But, he added, it is clear that “the pandemic is not over”.

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