“This is not the news that any of us wanted, but hospitalizations are increasing, ICU beds are filling, variants are spreading and even people who are convinced that they should not be worried get sick,” he said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference on Tuesday, adding that this is a third “very serious” wave of the pandemic.
Admissions to intensive care units have increased by 18% in the last week alone, and the new options put “heavy pressure” on hospital capacity, the Canadian Public Health Agency said.
“Many of them deteriorate fairly quickly and need to be admitted to the ICU fairly immediately, and then spend quite a lot of time staying in the ICU, which means there is also an impact on capacity,” Tam said.
While hospitalizations have not increased dramatically, more inpatients now need critical care because the variants make them more seriously ill, she said.
In Toronto, public health officials have ordered all elementary and high schools to stop personal learning and move to distance learning, effective Wednesday, as it tries to “reverse the growing infection currently facing the province,” he said. Toronto Public Health.
Ontario, whose capital is Toronto, is debating new and more restrictive measures, including a home stay order, as its intensive care capacity is increasingly strained.
The order will be in force from April 7-18, according to the guide issued on Tuesday and can be extended.
“Current circumstances require that difficult decisions be made at the local level to protect everyone in our school communities, including students, teachers and staff,” said Toronto Public Health.
British Columbia has moved to close the Whistler ski resort and further restrict meetings in the province, which now also faces the outbreak of the virus among NHL hockey players with the Vancouver Canucks.
This week, Canada has exceeded 1 million cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. Tam called that stage a “strict memory” of everything Canadians went through.
While variant B.1.1.7 has probably become the dominant variant in Canada, Tam said his team is also pursuing a significant outbreak of variant P.1, first detected in Brazil and now growing in some western Canadian provinces. .
On Monday, the British Columbia health minister said the number of P.1 cases in his province nearly doubled over the Easter weekend.
“The most transmitted variants of Covid-19 will eventually take over,” Adrian Dix said in an update Monday.
Elizabeth Stuart and Theresa Waldrop of CNN contributed to this report.