“The curve is just bending,” Tam told a briefing Friday. She also emphasized how basic measures, like masking, should remain in place to avoid another surge in the winter.
Tam said it’s promising that more than 80 per cent of Canadians eligible to receive a shot are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, however, there are still some six million eligible Canadians who are not properly immunized.
In her statement today, the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada said »
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,651,236 cases of COVID-19 and 28,141 deaths reported in Canada. These cumulative numbers tell us about the overall burden of COVID-19 illness to date, while the number of active cases, now at 41,549, and 7-day moving averages indicate current disease activity and severity trends.
Updated surveillance data show ongoing regional variation in disease activity, but overall, public health measures re-applied in heavily impacted areas have slowed acceleration of the epidemic nationally. The latest national 7-day average of 3,745 new cases reported daily (Oct 1-7) is a decrease of 14% over the previous week. Unfortunately, hospitalisation and critical care admission trends, primarily involving unvaccinated people, are still elevated, nationally. Together with prolonged hospital stays this continues to place a heavy strain on local healthcare resources, particularly where infection rates are high and vaccination rates are low. The latest provincial and territorial data show that an average of 2,513 people with COVID-19 were being treated in Canadian hospitals each day during the most recent 7-day period (Oct 1-7), which is 2.5% higher than last week. This includes, on average, 769 people who were being treated in intensive care units (ICU), 3.2% less than last week and an average of 38 deaths were reported daily (Oct 1-7). It is hoped that maintaining strengthened control measures in heavily impacted areas will begin to reduce severe illness trends and ease the strain on the health system in the weeks to come.
