Canadians have ‘unfinished business’ amid rising COVID-19 hospitalizations. Here’s why
Global News
In the last week, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Prairies have all reported an increase in hospitalizations from COVID-19 amid the sixth wave.
Hospitals across Canada are facing a resurgence of patients with COVID-19 that some health officials say will likely continue for another month.
Latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows hospitalizations due to COVID-19 rose about 18 per cent across Canada between April 4 and April 11 – to 6,020 people needing beds from 5,109.
In the last week, Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and the Prairies have all reported an increase in hospitalizations from the virus and intensive care admissions have also inched slightly upwards in some provinces.
Latest available data from the provinces shows Quebec had 2,220 people in hospital and Ontario had 1,301. There were 1,053 hospitalizations in Alberta, 403 in Saskatchewan, 158 in Manitoba and 59 in Nova Scotia.
Dr. Eddy Lang, department head of emergency medicine in Calgary for Alberta Health Services, said his province is in its sixth wave of the pandemic fuelled by the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron, but it’s not as dramatic as the original Omicron surge.
“No one in health care would support the ‘let it rip approach,’ but in terms of hospitalization capacity, we’re not seeing the same strain in our ICU capacity as we did with (the Delta variant) and we should be able to manage,” Lang said Monday.
He said wastewater analysis and data from the United Kingdom suggests hospitalizations could start to level off in mid-May.
Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer of health, also projects the latest resurgence will end within the next few weeks. Canadians, in the meantime, have “unfinished business” when it comes to getting vaccinated, he said.