Emilie Bergeron, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The peak of the sixth wave of COVID-19 transmission has passed, or nearly passed, in several regions of the country, estimates the assistant administrator of public health of Canada.
Dr. Howard Njoo noted in a press briefing on Friday that the epidemiological situation varies from one place to another in Canada.
“It’s hard to speak for the whole country, but I think we can say in general that we are pretty close to the peak or even the peak has been exceeded,” he said, answering questions. journalists.
“With the warmer temperatures too, we are in a better situation today than before,” he added.
Asked to clarify whether science now makes it possible to clearly decide on the seasonality of COVID-19, Dr Njoo replied that it was “perhaps a little too early” for that.
“But with the experience of previous waves, it is certain that we have seen that during the summer, there is less activity and transmission”, he nuanced, noting that the summer period is shorter in Canada than many other places in the world.
A better portrait of the long COVID
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said a survey is currently being conducted by her agency to assess the prevalence of long-term COVID in the Canadian population.
Asked regarding the subject, she explained that there are no less than a hundred variable symptoms, so that it is sometimes difficult for health professionals to make a diagnosis.
“We need diagnostics per se and that’s what the research is looking at (as well as) markers of the impacts of long COVID,” she said.
While the data is still sketchy, Dr. Tam said the effects of long COVID might be “quite substantial.”
The survey, conducted in collaboration with Statistics Canada, should also make it possible to identify which sections of the population are more vulnerable to this prolonged infection.
In addition, Dr. Tam once more encouraged Canadians to get their booster dose of one of the vaccines once morest COVID-19.
According to the most recent figures published by Ottawa, just under 55% of Canadians aged 12 and over have received their third dose. Data on the fourth dose is not available on the federal dashboard.
