TORONTO – The contagion curve is still falling in Ontario. 458 new cases were registered on Monday and 390 today. Two deaths in the past two days, according to data released only today due to the Thanksgiving holiday. So, for the first time in nearly two months, the daily tally falls below 400 in Ontario. 

Last Monday, the province reported 511 new infections. The seven-day moving average of new cases in Ontario is now 525, still down from a week ago (576), and the provincial-level positivity rate remains below 2% (1.9%).

As for the territorial distribution, of today’s infections 66 concern Toronto, 65 the York region and 62 the Peel region. Of the infections confirmed today, 130 (33%) were in fully immunized individuals and of those on Sunday 125 (27%) were in people who had received both doses of the vaccine.

According to data released by the province, 149 people with Covid-19 are in hospital intensive care units, down from 155 last week. A tally of local public health units and individual hospitals brings the total number of people admitted with the virus to 246, including those in intensive care.

There are now 4,369 (known) cases still active in Ontario, down from 4,734 on Tuesday.

Infections are also decreasing in Quebec which today reported 409 new cases (compared to 480 on Monday) and two other deaths. The number of hospitalizations has increased by one (now there are 291 patients): 17 have been hospitalized in the last few days while 16 have been discharged. Of these patients, 72 are still in intensive care units, a decline of six in the past 24 hours.

The cases still active (known) in Quebec are now 4,907.

A new emergency situation is registered in New Brunswick where hospitals are passing to the red alert level and postponing some non-urgent procedures due to the rapid increase in Covid-19 infections throughout the province. In fact, more than 1,000 active cases have been reported in New Brunswick (which has a population of 776,827 inhabitants) and 56 people are hospitalized, 20 of them in intensive care.

Today, the hospitals of the Vitalite Health Network went to the red alert level, although Campbellton Regional Hospital imposed emergency measures as early as last week to deal with an outbreak in the hospital. Under the red alert designation, hospitals can temporarily reduce or suspend services such as non-urgent surgery and x-rays.

“We must resort to red alert so that we can temporarily reduce or suspend non-essential services and then redeploy staff to maintain our emergency services and intensive care units and the care of Covid-19 patients who are hospitalized” said the CEO of Vitalite, Dr. France Desrosiers.

Horizon Health Network hospitals will do the same tomorrow and the measures will be in place for at least two weeks. Horizon CEO Dr. John Dornan says the protocols allow for redeployment of staff to maintain emergency and critical care services. “As we stand ready to face peaks and epidemics, the fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has been shown to have a major effect on our already stressed healthcare system” Dornan said. The visits are temporarily suspended in all the hospitals in the province.

Photo by Hyttalo Souza on Unsplash