After 3 years of COVID-19, here’s how Canada’s ‘endemic’ future may look
Global News
Will Canadians keep getting boosters, keep testing for COVID-19 or face a new threat from a potential yet to be found variant? Here's a look at what experts expect.
On March 11, 2020, the world came to a screeching halt when the World Health Organization declared the COVID–19 outbreak a global pandemic.
Schools across the world shut down, workplaces turned remote and the fast-spreading virus revealed the fragility of many countries’ health-care systems. Since then, the virus has claimed close to seven million lives, of which more than 51,000 were Canadians.
Fast-forward three years and COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are declining, more than 70 per cent of Canadians have contracted the virus at least once and effective vaccines and treatments paired with previous infection have allowed many to live somewhat normal lives again.
Some experts now say the pandemic is slowly transitioning to an endemic state — when a disease, like COVID-19, is consistently present, often within a particular area or region. Examples of this include the flu, malaria, ebola and hepatitis B.
“I think we are seeing that point,” explained Dr. Zain Chagla, infectious disease physician and associate professor at McMaster University in Hamilton.
“We are seeing death rates lower since the beginning of the pandemic, we’re seeing health care utilization slowing, we are seeing the population having immunity to this,” he said.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, echoed this sentiment.
Speaking at a media conference Friday, she said Canadians should not expect a surge of COVID-19 in the upcoming months.