Variants fuel increase in hospitalizations and lockdowns in Canada

“Even though the end of the pandemic is in sight, the variants mean the situation is even more serious. We are entering the home stretch of this crisis, we just need to stay strong a little longer, ”said Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. Minister during a briefing on Covid-19 in Ottawa on Tuesday.

Trudeau announced that Pfizer had once again agreed to increase its vaccine shipments to Canada. But even with 4 vaccines approved, public health officials say it won’t do much to ease the burden on hospitals during this third wave of the pandemic.

“The continued increase in infection rates is now playing out in our hospitals with increasing trends in serious and critical illnesses, putting renewed pressure on the healthcare system,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Senior physician from Canada, alongside Trudeau.

Tam said Canada was going through a ‘third resurgence’ of the pandemic, but added that with the majority of the elderly population vaccinated, those aged 80 and over were not so far affected by the rise. hospitalizations.

Tam also revealed that there had been a 64% increase in new cases of variants detected in Canada in the past week alone. She said the vast majority is the B.1.1.7 variant, first detected in the UK and described the spread of the current variant reported as the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

The province of British Columbia imposed a “circuit breaker” lockout this week, shutting off indoor meals, demanding more masks in schools and banning indoor fitness.

And in Ontario, hospital officials say they are scrambling to provide intensive care to young patients who doctors say are now more vulnerable to the virus.

In a report released on Monday, Ontario’s science advisory committee released data suggesting that the new case variants are responsible for the doubling of ICU admissions in recent weeks.

“COVID-19 patients in intensive care units under the age of 60 are about 50% higher today than they were before the provincial lockdown began,” the report said.

The science advisory committee is providing advice and research so the government can update its recommendations amid the pandemic.

Many areas of Ontario, including Canada’s largest city, Toronto, have already been in some form of lockdown for more than four months.