According to Federal Public Health | The peak of the Omicron wave at the gates of the country

(Ottawa) Federal public health predicts that the peak of the wave powered by the Omicron variant is at the gates of Canada, and that it is “possible” that it has been crossed in Quebec. That said, the “data gaps” related to changes in testing strategy leave gray areas.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

The Chief Administrator of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Dr.^D Theresa Tam, and her right-hand man, D^r Howard Njoo, presented the latest projections of the epidemiological situation across the country at a press conference in Ottawa on Friday.

Some indicators, including the daily number of cases, are “currently extremely high”, and “the actual number of new infections [est] considerably underestimated”, they warned from the outset by presenting this document where the January and February curves are on a gray background.

“The current very high positivity rate shows that COVID-19 has spread widely and that the number of cases underestimates the true burden of infection in the general population. [compte tenu] unprecedented volume of cases caused by the resurgence associated with Omicron,” said Dr.^D Tam.

And despite this statistical gap, “other indicators continue to be used in parallel to monitor other aspects, including trends in the severity of the disease,” she continued by presenting this new model. , which is also based on international data.

Because the portrait painted is national, it is expected that the peak will be reached in the coming days, and “yes, it is possible that we have even passed the peak”, commented the D^r Njoo when asked if the Quebec authorities were right to say he was behind us on Thursday.

According to the federal document, the current number of cases nationwide, although underestimated, amounts to more than 37,500 new daily cases. But we should see “a pronounced decline” in infections in the coming weeks, it is expected.

If Canadians want to contribute to the tumble, they must continue to show up at vaccination clinics to pick up their booster dose as soon as possible, insisted the D^D Tam and the D^r Njoo. In Quebec, all adults can register for it since Thursday evening.

Young adults, as we know, are being hit hard by the fifth wave of the pandemic. This is especially true for people between the ages of 20 and 39. They are the ones who win, by far, the palm of the greatest number of infections.

Are we heading towards the achievement of collective immunity at the national level?

To this question, the D^r Njoo didn’t want to answer. Too risky to comment on it, he said.