COVID-19 cases continue to increase across the country, particularly in Quebec and Ontario, and everything indicates that a resurgence could accelerate in the coming weeks, especially if Omicron replaces Delta.
The most recent modeling from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows that, by mid-January, daily cases of Delta, the currently dominant variant, could vary between 2,900 and 15,000 cases per. day, depending on the decrease or increase in transmission rates.
If Omicron becomes the dominant variant, cases could explode to 26,600 cases per day, according to public health forecasts.
Preliminary data on Omicron indicates that it has the potential to spread faster than the Delta variant, which was already more transmissible than the original Alpha strain. The severity of Omicron is however still under investigation by public health.
“I call for extreme vigilance and caution because the Omicron variant could gain the upper hand quite quickly, and we do not know what the impact will be on risk indicators or hospital capacities,” warned Chief Administrator Dr. Theresa Tam at a press conference Friday.
As of Dec. 9, 87 confirmed cases of Omicron have been reported in seven provinces and territories, according to public health. The cases listed were linked to international travel or travelers, and those affected were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.
In the past week, Canada has seen an average of 3,300 daily cases of COVID-19 – mostly of the Delta variant. The most affected age group are school-aged children aged 5 to 11, who have recently become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. So far, only 1% of them are fully vaccinated and 17% have received at least a first dose of vaccine.