Health experts warn Ontarians to keep masks on as COVID-19 hospitalizations mount

Ontario is reporting 778 people hospitalized with COVID-19 Wednesday as health experts are cautioning people to keep wearing masks as the province sees a rise in hospital occupancy in the wake of public health measures being lifted.

Dr. Peter Jüni, head of Ontario's COVID-19 science advisory table, says the province is seeing the effect of easing of public health measures in the past few weeks — including the lifting of mask mandates in most settings and the end of gathering limits.

"We're seeing quite the steep increase right now in wastewater predominantly, and it starts to be followed now by an increase in hospital occupancy," Jüni told CBC News Wednesday morning.

"We are in the middle of it, however we call it. It's either the resurgence expected after the reopening of the last wave or you can call it the sixth wave."

Experts predicted a rise in cases and hospitalizations with measures lifting, but urged Ontarians to continue being cautious and wear a mask in busy indoor environments.

Jüni said the latest projections made by the science table that predicted an increase in hospital occupancy will need to be re-evaluated based on the behaviour health experts are seeing. Those predictions saw an increase of hospitalizations, though not one as high as the peak of the Omicron wave of the pandemic.

Jüni said that he doesn't anticipate the burden on the province's healthcare system will be as high as previous waves due to high vaccination rates but notes it is difficult to know how big of an impact it will have.

He continued to urge Ontarians to take precautions. 

"We should change our behaviour only moderately and slowly to make sure that the upward slope is not too steep."

Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases expert with University Health Network, said it's "pretty clear" wastewater signals are trending upwards, also noting that another wave is underway.

WATCH | Infectious disease specialist on rise in wastewater signals:

"There's more COVID now than there was a week or two ago, [but] the real question here is 'How big will this wave be? not 'Is there a wave?'" Bogoch told CBC News Tuesday.

"I don't think it's going to be as big as the wave we just had [but] again it's going to be something."

Wastewater surveillance data is helpful for experts to project the virus transmission in specific areas and how that will impact hospitals in coming days or weeks while figures such as hospitalizations and ICU occupancy are "delayed metrics," he noted.