Emily Bergeron, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The peak of the sixth wave of COVID-19 transmission has passed, or nearly passed, in many areas of the country, estimates Canada’s assistant administrator for public health.
Dr Howard Njoo noted in a press briefing on Friday that the epidemiological situation in Canada varies from place to place.
Responding to questions from journalists, he said, “It is difficult for the whole country to speak, but I think in general we can say that we are very close to the summit or even crossed the summit.” Has gone.”
“With warmer temperatures, we are in a better position today than we were before,” he said.
To clarify whether science now makes it possible to decide clearly on the COVID-19 season, Dr Nju replied that it was “probably a little too early” for him.
“But with the experience of past waves, it is certain that we have observed that during the summer, there is less activity and transmission”, he said, noting that the summer duration in Canada is shorter than in many other places in the world. Is.
A better picture 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-lived COVID in the Canadian population.
When asked about the topic, he explained that there are no less than a hundred variable symptoms, making it sometimes difficult for health professionals to diagnose.
“What we need is a diagnosis and that’s what research is looking at (as well as) markers of the effects of long-term COVID,” she said.
Although the data is still incomplete, Dr. Tam said the long-term effects of COVID could be “quite substantial”.
The survey, conducted in collaboration with Statistics Canada, should also make it possible to identify which segments of the population are more vulnerable to this prolonged infection.
In addition, Dr Tam again encouraged Canadians to receive a booster dose of one of the vaccines against COVID-19.
According to the most recent data published by Ottawa, less than 55% of Canadians aged 12 and older have received their third dose. Data on the fourth dose is not available on the federal dashboard.