The third wave of COVID in Canada: How is it worse than the previous waves?
Doctors told us what's different this time.
Canada is now battling a surge of disease caused by new variants of COVID-19. On April 3, the total number of people sickened in the country since the pandemic began surpassed 1 million. Mostly the third wave of the virus has hit Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, which have already imposed quarantine restrictions.
Health Canada's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Teresa Tam, says new variant infections are up 64%, with 90% of cases being variant B 1.1.7, first detected in the UK in September.
The third wave has another feature: the virus has begun to affect younger people more often. Ontario officials said this week that half of patients in intensive care units are younger than 60.
"The situation is alarming," says Dr. Kashir Peerzada, a Toronto-based emergency physician. — The people who are now filling intensive care units are all in their 30s, 40s, 50s."
Adalstein Brown, senior science advisor to the Ontario government, said at a recent press conference that the virus is killing younger people and spreading faster than before.
Vaccination in Canada has been rather slow, largely due to supply failures. According to government data, as of April 1, only 1.75% of the population was fully vaccinated, and only 11.86% had received at least one dose.
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