The third wave of COVID-19 hits Canada
Experts say it will be more devastating than the previous two.
As many café porches reopen in hotspots across Ontario and vaccines spread across the country, doctors are preparing for the impact of the third wave of pandemic COVID-19.
The Ontario doctor is not surprised by another rise in cases, since restrictions in the province were loosened in February, and once new mutations of the virus established themselves in the country, he realized that a third wave of the pandemic was only a matter of time. This wave could be the worst yet, he said.
On Monday, Ontario's chief medical officer made the official announcement that the province is "hitting" the third wave. Other provinces, such as Alberta and British Columbia, have been slow to make such announcements as the numbers continue to rise.
"I think it's impossible to avoid the third wave, which will probably be worse than the first two," said infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawi.
"Many of us felt it was inevitable," he said. — That's pretty much another trap this pandemic can present to us. That's why we call these stages waves: at first it seems like the worst is over, and then things start to pick up in a negative way."
This time, he said, experts are observing that the virus is hitting harder where it was previously handled well.
"And, of course, we've noticed that new mutations can really lead to explosive growth very quickly," he added.
And it's not just densely populated cities that suffer the most.
"Look what happened in Thunder Bay," he said, referring to the northern Ontario town. — Here, the number of cases recently peaked, setting a new daily record of 64 cases on March 1. The previous record was 60 cases on Jan. 19, and before that the maximum daily number of cases was 33."
There are many factors contributing to the surge, but Sharkawi points to the slow introduction of the vaccine and mutations in the virus as the main drivers of the third wave.
"In addition, an element of fatigue that has crept into our practices plays a role," he said. — Clearly, vaccine implementation is not proceeding efficiently and the speed needed to keep up with the race is not yet picked up."
The third wave this time affects young people: "We're seeing younger, healthier people developing coronavirus because they're not vaccinated, and those variants."
He said the number one driver that will stem the tide will be vaccines and likely another isolation.
"We don't have enough vaccines coming to us at the right time, also we weren't confident about the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has put people off vaccination itself. Because of this, people are becoming hesitant to get immunised," he said.
He added that not only do we need materials to vaccinate everyone, but we need a ready population.
Until we get enough vaccines, isolation will likely be needed to keep the spread under control.
