TORONTO – Hospitalizations from and with Covid-19 in Ontario continue to grow: today in the province’s hospitals there were 778 people, down from 790 yesterday, even a sharp increase compared to 611 a week ago. 165 patients in intensive care (92 with ventilators to breathe), the same number as yesterday. As for infections, 2,814 were recorded today but, due to the limitation of texts to “at risk” categories only, according to experts that the real number of infections could be about 10 times that figure. 

The tests processed today are 17,309, for a positivity rate of 15.1%, still high but lower than that of the day before today (17.9%). On the other hand, Ontario wastewater data suggests that cases are on the rise and currently double every 10 days. The active and known cases are officially 19,736, up sharply from 19,354 just a day ago.

13 deaths reported today, bringing the total in Ontario since the start of the pandemic to 12,427.

8 instead the deaths recorded today in Quebec: since the beginning of the pandemic, the victims in the French-speaking province are now 14,353. New surge in hospitalizations: now the number of people in hospital is 1,200, from 1,153, with an increase of 47 in a single day: today 148 patients were hospitalized and 101 were discharged. -3). 3,067 new coronavirus cases confirmed today, albeit on the basis of tests reserved only for “at risk” categories. To these must be added the 1,334 infections (out of a total of 1,560 tests) self-reported by citizens in the Quebec government portal, where the results of quick home swabs can be entered. Since the portal was activated, out of 133. 959 tests entered as many as 106,782 are positive. But the active and known cases in Quebec are, officially, 21,587.

Meanwhile, a new alarm comes due to the flu which, in recent weeks, has registered a surge: according to a new study, adults who are hospitalized with Covid-19 and the flu at the same time, have a increased risk of serious illness and death.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh, the University of Liverpool, the University of Leiden and Imperial College London have studied more than 305,000 hospitalized patients with Covid-19 and published their results in The Lancet on Friday. Of the patients studied, nearly 7,000 had respiratory viral coinfections, and 227 of these patients had seasonal flu and Covid-19 at the same time.

According to the study, patients with co-infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and the flu virus, were four times more likely to need ventilation during their hospital stay. The study also suggested that these patients were 2.4 times more likely to die than hospitalized patients with Covid-19 alone.

“We are seeing an increase in the usual seasonal respiratory viruses, so we can expect the flu to circulate alongside Covid-19”, said Calum Semple, professor of epidemic medicine at the University of Liverpool and one of the study researchers. “We are surprised that the risk of death more than doubled when people were infected with both the flu and Covid-19. It is now very important that people get fully vaccinated and potentiated against both viruses, and don’t leave it until it’s too late” Semple concluded.

Image by Rafael Urdaneta Rojas from Pixabay