Key takeaways:
- Experts say that an all-time high of 5,790 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Ontario, painting an incomplete picture of the virus’s presence.
- 440 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott, including 136 who were fully vaccinated.
On Thursday, Ontario reported an all-time high of 5,790 new COVID-19 cases, which experts say paints an incomplete picture of the virus’s presence in the province.
The new high of 4,812 diagnoses was set on April 16. Still, a member of the province’s science table said the overburdened testing system means the Omicron-driven fifth wave of the pandemic is likely even larger than it appears.
“As public health units lose the ability to test everyone who has symptoms consistent with Omicron, these official numbers are likely far below the true rate of COVID-19 in the community,” said Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
“You’d have to multiply these numbers at least three or four times to get a sense of what’s going on,” says the author.
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Even in the finest of times, he stated, testing would only catch about half of all cases in the province.
Because of the large number of cases, he believes it is more important than ever for Ontarians to be cautious about their contacts.
“You must assume that everyone you meet has Omicron,” Razak said.
“It’s really about trying to protect ourselves and the healthcare system as much as possible during the surge.” “The most important goal is to achieve this.”
Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician in Burlington, Ont., who has made a name for herself online by sharing COVID-19 information, agreed that the official case count was likely incomplete.
“How come there are so many people with COVID-19 symptoms?” “Unable to get a PCR testing appointment,” she tweeted.
The demand for PCR testing, for example, “currently exceeds the local capacity to perform the tests,” according to the London-Middlesex Health Unit on Twitter.
“Consider your illness as COVID-19 if you develop respiratory symptoms, even if you don’t get a positive test result,” the health unit said on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Ottawa Public Health issued a similar warning.
The province has asked overburdened public health units to focus their contact tracing efforts on higher-risk communities to better protect the healthcare system.
440 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, according to Health Minister Christine Elliott, including 136 who were fully vaccinated.
She said 169 people were in intensive care, with 32 of them have received all of their vaccinations.
On Thursday, the province reported seven new cases of virus-related death.
According to provincial data, 86.7 percent of Ontarians aged five and up have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 81.2 percent receiving two.
According to Elliott, over the previous 24 hours, 253,000 doses were administered.
Source: CP24 News
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