The institute estimates that this latest wave started in mid-March and is quickly becoming a challenge in the healthcare system as more and more workers become ill and forced to stay home, according to Dr. Gaston De Serres, an epidemiologist at INSPQ. He said a team at INSPQ was looking at the data. “The indicators clearly showed that we were already in the sixth wave,” de Serres said, noting that these indicators include points such as the positive rate, the number of sick health workers and the number of hospitalizations. “Being on a wave is something we expected.” Defining a wave is easier once it appears, but it is more difficult in the early stages, he explained. Last week, it was clear that the number of hospitalizations was increasing and almost all areas were affected by COVID-19, he said. “What we do not know, and what could be a variable, is how big this wave will be,” De Serres said. “It depends a lot on the number of contacts the population will have in the coming weeks.” Even if there are no official public health measures to reduce contacts, it is clear that the population needs to minimize the number of contacts if the province hopes to overcome this wave with a limited number of hospital admissions, he said. De Serres said the Quebec government has made the choice to step down and relies on the citizens who will be responsible for their behavior. The wave was observed in Europe and was expected to affect the province, he said, but the increase in cases will be much smaller than that experienced in Quebec in late December and early January. The weeks of April should still be quite full in terms of hospitalizations, De Serres added.
Hospitals are increasing
For the first time since the peak of the fifth wave in mid-January, the number of new hospitalizations rose by 18 percent from the previous week, according to a report by the Quebec Provincial Institute of Health (INESSS) released on Wednesday, based on data collected between 19 and 25 March. The increase in hospitalization is observed in all age groups and in all regions, the report says. Although there is a slight increase in the number of people who need to stay in intensive care, this number remains relatively low, the report said. The number of treatments is expected to increase by about 200 a day in the coming weeks, according to INESSS. The county reported 3,067 new cases of COVID-19 and eight deaths on Wednesday, although the general public no longer has access to PCR tests, as they are intended for those in high-risk areas such as hospitals, long-term care centers, detention centers. and homeless shelters.
BA.2 The Omicron subvariable makes up the majority of cases
The interim director of public health of Quebec, Dr. Luc Boileau, did not confirm another wave of infections when he gave a press conference on Sunday. However, he said that the rise in cases in recent weeks – due to Omicron’s BA.2 variant – indicates that a sixth wave is imminent. “Everyone has to act responsibly, depending on how they feel about themselves and others,” Boileau said. Boileau said he would wait to hear from INSPQ experts before concluding that Quebec is on the sixth wave. “We are not in the same situation as in December and January, but public health is monitoring all this very closely,” he said, noting that the BA.2 variant is even more contagious than the Omicron strain. “The increase in variation is worrying.” De Serres said the BA.2 variant now represents the majority of cases. He said it was especially important for people to take steps to protect the province’s elderly and those who are immunosuppressed, as they are more vulnerable to COVID-19. He said the high vaccination rate in Quebec would help, but to reduce the risk, “we need to reduce our contacts.”
