The exasperation with the sanitary measures may have reached the streets, it is still far too early to withdraw them completely, as demanded by the demonstrators who have invaded Ottawa and who are preparing to do the same in Quebec.
Posted at 2:00 p.m.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos gave an update on the pandemic on Friday, along with Public Health administrators, Doctors Theresa Tam and Howard Njoo, and all three argued that the situation remains difficult , especially in the West.
“Western Canada hasn’t reached a plateau yet — Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia,” said Minister Duclos.
“They are a little out of step with what we have seen in Quebec and Ontario,” he said, adding a note of optimism all the same, specifying that the growth of hospitalizations in these provinces is even slowing down. if it has not yet reached its climax. “We are positive, we are optimistic that things will get better,” he said.
Asked whether Saskatchewan and Alberta, which have announced easing of their sanitary measures, were moving too quickly, Dr. Tam did not want to come forward, believing that the provinces are best placed to determine the capacity. of their hospital network.
Critical situation despite the decline
Even in Quebec, noted Minister Duclos, the situation remains critical despite the decrease in hospitalizations observed in recent weeks. “It is still well beyond – around 2,600 hospitalizations in Quebec – of what Minister (Christian) Dubé had reported as an acceptable level in December. »
Nationally, more than 10,000 people are treated in hospitals every day, including more than 1,100 in intensive care, and more than 140 deaths are reported daily, Dr Tam said.
As for the rise of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, Dr Njoo said it accounts for about 8% of new cases, but if one considers that it is probably more contagious than Omicron itself, data are still insufficient to determine its virulence or potential resistance to vaccines.
On the vaccination side, we learned that 85% of Canadians of all ages received a first dose, 79% two doses and 50% received a booster dose. Among 5- to 11-year-olds, however, only 55% received a first dose.
Minister Duclos also announced the creation of a position of Chief Nursing Officer of Canada who “will not only represent the important interests of nurses nationally, but will also contribute substantially to work and decisions” of Health Canada.
400,000 dead without vaccines and measures
“Of course everyone is fed up, me too, with what is happening with COVID-19 and everyone wants relaxation of public health measures, but if we relax public health measures too quickly, there is always a risk of subsequently seeing an upsurge in the serious consequences of hospitalizations and deaths,” argued Dr. Njoo.
Jean-Yves Duclos took the opportunity to share the results of a study carried out by Health Canada which concluded that “if we had not had a vaccine against the Delta variant in 2021 and we had not put in public health measures either — masks, physical distancing and so on — from July 2021, we would have had 400,000 deaths in Canada as of the fall of 2021. Obviously, no one could have tolerate 400,000 deaths in Canada. »
These conclusions come to debunk, according to him, the speech of those among the demonstrators who are at the same time opposed to vaccination and to sanitary measures. “The only way to avoid confinement, to ensure a more normal life, is to be for vaccination. […] Being against vaccination and against public health measures does not make sense. »
It would have required, he said, “extremely severe” containment measures in the absence of vaccination, which would have further harmed the social climate and the economy. “What we see as containment measures, the curfew in Quebec, closures, all that would have been small beer compared to what we would have needed to do in the absence of this chance. we had to be able to vaccinate so many Canadians. »