Dr. Kieran Moore is scheduled to brief the 11 a.m. in Queen’s Park. The Ontario government has been under pressure in recent weeks to extend the age eligibility to fourth shots and extend the distribution of testing kits beyond July 31. Moore confirmed to CBC News on July 6 that Ontario is in the midst of another pandemic wave, the province’s seventh. “Unfortunately yes, we are in another wave,” Moore said last Wednesday. The Omicron subvariant BA.5, and to a lesser extent BA.4, is largely driving the latest wave, according to Dr. Fahad Razak, a pathologist at St. Table. “The BA.5 subvariant has mutated to the point where your body doesn’t recognize it and people get reinfected,” Razak said last Friday. “You’re seeing this extra wave starting in Ontario and now it’s started in other parts of Canada.” In its most recent update on the pandemic, published July 7, the province says 712 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 585 the week before. 110 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit due to the virus, up from 95 last week. Ontario Public Health, in its July 7 weekly epidemiological summary, which contains data up to July 2, said the province’s seventh wave of COVID-19 began as early as June 19. According to the summary, case rates have increased in 25 of Ontario’s 34 public health units since July 2 and across all age groups. The biggest jump was among children aged four and under, with cases in this group increasing by 40%. Incidence rates remain highest among those 20 years of age and older and are still higher among those 80 and older. In Ontario, a clear picture of the COVID-19 situation has become increasingly difficult to obtain over the past several months after the government limited laboratory testing and stopped releasing school-related data. Also on June 11, the province moved to weekly reporting of COVID-19 data after more than two years of daily updates.
