“We are not there,” Dr. Luc Boileau told a news conference Wednesday. He also said it was not yet clear if the province was entering a seventh wave. The update comes after an increase in COVID-related hospitalizations, community-based transmission, cases, and the number of out-of-home healthcare workers due to the virus. On Wednesday, the county reported 1,260 people in hospital with the virus – an increase of 34 from the previous day – after jumping 113 patients on Tuesday. Boileau said the increase was mainly due to variants BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5, which he said accounted for 75 per cent of new cases in the province and were significantly more contagious than the original strain. . Boileau said this resurgence of cases was expected, although it arrived a little earlier than expected. He said he understood that the Quebec people wanted to enjoy their summer, but asked them to be careful. He suggested that people wear masks when gathering indoors and at busy outdoor events, especially those belonging to high-risk groups. “If I was at an event, like a festival, I would wear it [a mask]”, Said Boileau. He said those at higher risk should consider getting a booster vaccine if they have not already done so.
The trend is worrying, says the epidemiologist
Dr Jean Longtin, a microbiologist at the Quebec Department of Health, said there were many factors involved in the resurgence of the cases. “Certainly the lifting of public health measures, we knew, we expected would have an impact because the masks are quite effective,” he said. Longtin said declining immunity, either from a previous infection or from vaccination, also plays a role. Asked why officials do not recommend reinstating the mask requirement, Longin said the situation has become more personal responsibility for COVID-19 risk management. “We could impose a mask on millions of people, while those who would benefit the most would be a limited group,” he said. While health officials said Quebec residents should expect transmission to slow in the coming weeks, one expert says the rise in cases is worrying. Epidemiologist Prativa Baral says she expects Quebec to see more COVID-19 cases in the summer and a “dirtier” fall and winter when many more activities take place indoors. (Jerome James) “This trend is definitely worrying and it is something we should continue to watch because it is definitely a red flag for us,” Prativa Baral, an epidemiologist and PhD candidate at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak Wednesday. . “Unfortunately, there is a lot of COVID circulating around us,” he said. “We just don’t talk about it that much and we don’t see it reflected in the official numbers, because a lot of people rightly use quick home tests.” The lack of coverage requirements in Quebec in crowded public places and the emergence of more immune-avoiding variants increase the chance of re-infection, even if you have had the virus in the past or have been adequately vaccinated, according to Baral. With European countries currently experiencing an increase in cases, Baral says it expects Quebec to follow suit, possibly causing a “summer hit and possibly a dirtier autumn and winter when there is more activity indoors”. . 2/3 However, some areas report increases in some of these activity indicators. At the same time, the total ratio of BA.4 and BA.5 between the variants in order – @ CPHO_Canada Canada’s Director of Public Health, Dr. Theresa Tam, wrote on Twitter on Friday that while COVID-19 serious disease trends are stable or declining nationwide, the overall incidence of BA.4 and BA.5 cases in the country is rising. The head of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Panel has already expressed concern that the BA.5 sub-variant will become the dominant executive in his province. Baral says Quebec can do much more at the “system level” to help reduce transmission. “We have allowed people to make their own decisions and that only works to some degree,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have to recognize that COVID is airborne.”
