Current COVID-19 wave may be cresting, says N.L.'s head pandemic researcher
CBC
The current COVID-19 wave washing over Newfoundland and Labrador may be at its crest, says the provincial researcher in charge of pandemic data.
Dr. Proton Rahman, who heads the analytics team responsible for following COVID-19 data in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the data available suggests the province has reached the peak.
"If we continue to do what we're actually doing, we're actually predicting that the numbers will actually start fo fall," Rahman told CBC Radio's St. John's Morning Show on Friday.
"The reason for this is twofold. The province has an aggressive plan in terms of giving the booster doses, which will decrease the transmission going forward, and people, for the most part, are actually abiding by the public health measures."
But there's still a lot of unknown data.
Rahman said projection modelling can no longer rely solely on known positive cases, given how quickly the Omicron variant spreads and how infections are outpacing testing.
He said the case positivity rate — the percentage of positive infections in a batch of tests — random sampling and waste-water testing are important indicators moving forward.
"That can give us an idea in terms of the burden of COVID-19 that's out there," he said, adding that hospitalizations will be the best indicator of the burden of COVID-19 in the province.
Rahman said the Omicron variant is resulting in about 83 per cent fewer hospitalizations than the Delta variant.
But with more than 4,000 known positive cases in the province as of Thursday — and with around 500 known new cases a day for several days now — the health-care system is stretched thin with some workers in isolation and others being reassigned to testing and booster clinics.
Rahman said the spike in cases happened mostly over the past week so it's too early to say hospitalizations won't increase. As of Thursday, there were four people in hospital due to COVID-19.
"We need to look forward and be careful in terms of what happens over the next week," he said.
"To try to get a better assessment of how high the peak may be, we're looking at provinces that are a little bit ahead of us, that have more COVID-19 in their province. So [we're] carefully studying Ontario, Quebec and also provinces that are demographically similar to us, such as Nova Scotia."
There's also still worry about the variant finding its way into older citizens. There have been recent cases inside long-term care homes in the province.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.