Ontario's COVID-19 test positivity climbs to 13.5% as new details of 7th wave emerge
CBC
New details are emerging about the severity of Ontario's newest wave of COVID-19, with the province reporting another 33 deaths related to the virus over the last week, as well as rising numbers of hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
Test positivity has also climbed to 13.5, the highest percentage reported since May, it reported Thursday.
The province says 712 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, up from 585 at this time last week. There are 110 patients in intensive care due to the virus, up from 95 last Thursday.
The new numbers come as Public Health Ontario released its latest weekly epidemiological summary, which noted the province's seventh wave of COVID-19 began as early as June 19. Ontario's top doctor only confirmed the newest wave Wednesday, saying the province is now in its third week of the spike.
According to the summary, case rates have increased across 25 of Ontario's 34 public health units as of July 5, and in all age groups.
The biggest jump was among children aged 0-4, with cases in that group spiking by 40 per cent. Case rates remain higher among those 20 and over and are still highest among those 80 and up.
While admissions of COVID-19 to hospitals and ICUs are slowly rising, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore says he expects the ultimate impact on the health-care system to be more modest than previous waves.
The BA.5 subvariant is highly transmissible, though Moore said there is no evidence to suggest it is more severe than the subvariants responsible for earlier waves. The hope, he said, is that continued vaccinations will keep most people who contract the subvariant out of hospital.
Ontario lifted its remaining mask mandates in early June, and there are no indications the province will require them again until possibly the fall should the strain on the health-care system grow severe enough, Moore suggested Wednesday.
Moore also said an announcement about expanded eligibility for second boosters could be coming soon, but provided no specifics.
The province's reluctance to open up fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses to more adults has drawn criticism from some health professionals.
Booster shots temporarily increase protection against severe outcomes from the illness to about 90 per cent, Moore said, but that protection wanes month over month. By five months, protection against severe health outcomes falls to roughly 70 per cent, with the effect even more pronounced in older people.
Around 7.4 million Ontarians have already received one booster, and nearly 90 per cent of those shots were administered at least five months ago, according to recent Public Health Ontario data.
Roughly five million people have not had a first booster shot yet, including about a million Ontarians over 50, Moore said. Meanwhile, about 1.3 million eligible Ontarians — adults aged 60 and older — have had a second booster shot.