COVID-19: Provincial & Federal Briefings - Aug. 8 - 12, 2022
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A summary of developments from Monday, August 8 to Friday, August 12, 2022 follows.
Federal Government?
Federal Government Statement on COVID-19?
On August 5, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) released a statement from the Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, regarding COVID-19.?
The statement indicated that COVID-19 is showing early signs of stabilization at the national level, but disease activity and severity are variable regionally. Similar to previous waves, lagging severity indicators such as hospitalizations are slower to decline, but are expected to stabilize and decline following infection rates.
The PHAC is encouraging?Canadians to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Although vaccines offer less protection against the Omicron variant than against previous variants, people vaccinated with a complete primary series plus one or more additional dose(s) of COVID-19 vaccines had an approximately five times lower hospitalization rate, and likewise a five times lower mortality rate, compared to unvaccinated people.
Canadians are also encouraged to share credible information on COVID-19 risks and prevention practices and measures to reduce COVID-19 in communities.?
Government of Canada and Air Industry Work on Reducing Congestion in Airports?
On August 10, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Public Safety, and the Minister of Tourism issued a joint statement on efforts to increase resources and streamline processes across the air industry to ease airport congestion and help keep travellers moving.?
The Government of Canada encourages Canadians to know their rights under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations - these rules cover compensation requirements for all flight incidents that are considered within an air carrier’s control, including flights delayed or cancelled as a result of crew shortages.?
As of September 8, 2022, amendments to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations will come into force to ensure passengers are compensated for flight delays, cancellations, and other incidents that may be out of an air carrier’s control. This will ensure Canadian travellers are protected in nearly every circumstance.?
?Latest data for the week of August 1-7:?
Additional measures include:?
COVID-19 Data Trends?????
The Canadian COVID-19 statistics were last updated on Friday, August 5 at 9:00 a.m. EST.?
In the past week, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 28,596 new COVID-19 cases, and 208 new deaths in Canada: bringing the cumulative total of cases to 4,084,728 and a total of 42,901 deaths.?????
Update on Monkeypox in Canada?
Today, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam, and Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Howard Njoo provided a technical update on the spread of monkeypox in Canada.??
While there are over 31,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox globally, PHAC reported a total of 1,059 confirmed cases of monkeypox across Canada: 511 in Ontario, 426 in Quebec, 98 in British Columbia, 19 in Alberta, 3 in Saskatchewan, and 2?in Yukon.??
?In response to questions from journalists, Dr. Tam said it was “a little too soon to tell if cases are plateauing in Canada”.?However, she did underline that cases are not increasing at the speed they were increasing at the beginning of the outbreak.
?Poliovirus
According to CBC News , PHAC intends to start testing wastewater from a number of Canadian cities "as soon as possible," after news reports of polio cases in the U.S., the U.K and Israel, and virus samples were found in the wastewater of several other developed countries.?PHAC is communicating with national and international partners who are experts in this field to finalize a wastewater testing strategy.
Ontario?
Speech from the Throne
The Speech from the Throne, delivered on August 9, 2022, laid out the agenda of Premier Doug Ford’s re-elected Progressive Conservative Government.?As expected, and following clear indication from the Premier during the election, the next term for the government will focus on ongoing pandemic concerns, high inflation, high fuels costs, labour shortages and supply chain challenges. The Speech from the Throne highlighted that Ontario has the tools to manage the virus and live with current variants for the long term, without returning to lockdowns.
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COVID-19 Data Trends??????
The COVID-19 statistics for Ontario were last updated on Thursday, August 11.???
As of Thursday, there were 1,402 people with COVID-19 in hospitals. That is down from 1,488 at the same time last week. Of those patients, 142 were being treated in intensive care.???
Over the course of the last seven days, the estimated number of daily COVID-19 cases was 1,630, marking a decrease of 114 cases for the same time last week. Another 98 Ontarians with COVID-19 died in the last seven days.???
Currently, 90.9% of Ontarians, aged 5 or older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 87.5% have received both doses. In addition, 62.6% of people aged 18 or older are vaccinated with three doses.
Monkeypox in Ontario?
According to the epidemiological summary released by Public Health Ontario, there are 478 confirmed cases of monkeypox in Ontario as of August 8. This marks an increase of 29 cases since August 4.??
Out of 478 confirmed cases, 359 cases were reported by Toronto Public Health. 475 cases are male; 3?cases are female. The average age of confirmed cases is 36 years within a range of people aged between 20 to 74 years of age. 15 of those with confirmed cases have been hospitalized, 2 have been in the intensive care unit, and no deaths have been reported. There are also 7 probable cases.?
Quebec
While there was no press conference this week, there was one press release (French only) issued by the Institut national de la santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) regarding the potential evolution of COVID-19 in Greater Montreal for the fall and winter months. More specifically, according to the hypothetical scenarios examined by experts from the INSPQ and Laval University (Groupe de recherche en modélisation mathématique et en économie de la santé liée aux maladies infectieuses), the evolution of the pandemic in Quebec in the fall and winter will depend on the potential characteristics of the new variants and the population's immune profile. It will therefore be important to monitor Quebecers’ level of protection and to plan for contingencies in the event that a new variant surfaces that would escape hybrid immunity (i.e. people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 and who have also been infected with the virus).
Santé Québec reported 7,430 new cases with 51 virus-related deaths in the last 7 days. There was a net weekly decrease of 109 hospitalizations, bringing the total number of people being treated in hospital with the virus to 2,000. The number of people in intensive care over the last 7 days remained stable at 57.
More than 20.4 million vaccine doses have been administered to Quebecers residing in and outside the province. The Santé Québec COVID-19 dashboard shows that 91% of the total eligible people aged 5 years and older have received their first vaccine dose and 56% have received their third dose, while 18% of the total eligible people have received their fourth vaccine dose.
Alberta
The province of Alberta released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of August 8, 2022, on a 7-day average, 748 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 28 of which are currently in intensive care. There were 223 new cases reported this week, making the positivity percentage on a 7-day average 23.73%. 90.7% of the population 12 years of age and older is vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 87.3% of the population 12 years of age and older is vaccinated with at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
CTV News Edmonton reported on August 10, 2022, that 30 Alberta communities are seeing health services reductions. A spokesperson for Alberta Health Services said "higher-than-usual volumes of seriously ill patients" combined with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and "increased staff vacancies and absences due to illness" have caused "significant pressure." The government has posted a map of temporary bed/space reductions online .
British Columbia
The province of British Columbia released updated COVID-19 statistics this week. As of August 6, 2022, on a 7-day average, 385 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, of which 23 are in critical care. As of August 6, 2022, there have been 28 new COVID-19 related deaths this week and 900 new cases. 15,332 new tests were completed this week, bringing the average testing rate in the province to 2,190 per 100,000.
Canada’s COVID-19 Tracker reported this week that 12,234,222 vaccine doses have been administered in British Columbia in total. 86.809% of all people in British Columbia have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 84.159% of all people in the province have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Only 53.724% of all people are fully vaccinated with a third dose.
A new study led by investigators at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and B.C. Children’s Hospital found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy, and that pregnant people experienced lower rates of health events post-vaccination than similarly aged, non-pregnant vaccinated people. The study is published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases .
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