(Ottawa) If the World Health Organization (WHO) believes that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is “within reach”, the federal Minister of Health, Jean-Yves Duclos, preaches the greatest caution .
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“I invite those who think the pandemic is over to visit a hospital. They will see how difficult the situation is,” said Minister Duclos during an interview with The Press Tuesday, the first day of the return to parliament.
“The pandemic is still there. If you go to hospitals in Quebec or elsewhere in the country, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 people who continue to be hospitalized with COVID-19. This is close to the record level of hospitalizations that we had before the arrival of the Omicron variant, ”he added in the same breath.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that deaths from COVID-19 worldwide had fallen by 22% in the previous week and that just over 11,000 had died. been reported. The WHO had also recorded a 28% drop in new cases, continuing a downward trend in the disease for weeks in all regions of the world.
These figures had led him to display cautious optimism for the first time since the start of the pandemic. “We are not there yet, but the end is at hand,” he said then, evoking the image of a marathon runner approaching the finish line.
This is the worst time to stop running. It’s more about running harder and making sure we cross the finish line, and reap all the rewards of our hard work.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
United States President Joe Biden went even further on Sunday in an interview with CBS. The White House tenant has indeed decreed that the COVID-19 pandemic is essentially “over” in the United States.
“The pandemic is over. […] If you look around, no one is wearing a mask, and everyone looks pretty good. So I think that’s changing. »
But Jean-Yves Duclos, who remains Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trusted minister to lead the federal government’s efforts during the pandemic, offers a different reading of the situation.
“The pandemic is less acute than in January or February. There has been a plateau since April, when about 5,000 hospitalizations were recorded per day and between 300 and 500 deaths per week. It’s still a lot of people hospitalized or who die of COVID every week, ”insisted the minister.
So it’s not gone. It’s less acute, and less cyclical than perhaps a few months ago. But it’s still with us.
Jean-Yves Duclos, Federal Minister of Health
Mr. Duclos recalled that the health care system has been strained over the past two years due to the pandemic and that health care workers are exhausted.
The Minister also urged Canadians to get their booster shot. Currently, about 60% of adults have up-to-date vaccination status – they got a shot within the last six to nine months. “If we went from 60% to 90% up-to-date vaccination in adults, we would reduce by 90% the number of hospitalizations that we will otherwise observe towards the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. So each person who gets vaccinated to update their vaccination status over the next few weeks is going to see a huge impact on the number of hospitalizations we’re going to have. »
End of vaccination requirements at the border?
In addition, the Trudeau government could suspend vaccination requirements for people entering Canada as of September 30. Concretely, this would mean that a traveler who is not vaccinated would no longer have to submit to a 14-day quarantine upon arriving in the country.
Ottawa also intends to end random testing for COVID-19 at international airports and border crossings, also starting September 30. However, the requirement to wear a mask on planes and trains would remain in place.
Finally, he plans to make the use of the application ArriveCAN optional for travelers arriving in the country by plane, by land or by boat.
A government source confirmed to The Press that these options were under consideration on Tuesday afternoon. But she insisted that no final decision had yet been made.