Canadian public health officials say the B.1.1.7 variant has now likely replaced the original Covid-19 virus in many parts of the country, adding that new variants make younger people sicker and send more to the hospital.
“This is not the news one of us wanted, but hospitalizations are on the rise, ICU beds are filling up, variants are spreading and even people who have convinced themselves not to worry are getting sick,” the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. said during a news conference Tuesday.
This is a “very serious” third wave of the pandemic, he added.
Trudeau has made a serious appeal to young people urging them to ‘stay home’ and said younger Canadians are getting sicker in this third wave.
The Canadian Public Health Agency said inpatient admissions had risen 18% in the past week, saying the new variant was putting “serious pressure” on the hospital’s capacity.
“With increasing infection rates, we are seeing a greater number of younger adults being treated with COVID-19 in the hospital,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, head of public health in Canada, said.
“Many of them weaken fairly quickly and need to be admitted to the ICU immediately. Then they spend a lot of time in the ICU, which means there is also an impact on capacity,” she added.
Tam explained that although hospitalizations have not increased dramatically, more of the patients admitted now need critical care as variants make them more seriously ill. She added that so far more than 15,000 variant cases have been detected, of which the vast majority are the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the UK.
While the B.1.1.7 variant has now probably become the dominant variant in Canada, Tam said that her team is also keeping a close eye on a significant outbreak of the P.1. variant, first detected in Brazil and now increasing in some Western Canadian provinces.
On Monday, the British Minister of Health in Colombia said that the number of cases of the P.1. variant in its province almost doubled over the Easter holiday weekend.
“The most transferable variant of COVID-19 is finally going to take over,” the minister said during a Covid briefing on Monday.
British Columbia has moved to close the Whistler ski resort and further restrict rallies in the province, which is also fueling the outbreak of the virus among NHL hockey players with the Vancouver Canucks.
The province of Alberta has also confirmed that it is dealing with new clusters of cases on the P.1. variant.
Ontario, meanwhile, is debating new and more restrictive measures, including a stay-at-home order, as ICU capacity is increasingly strained.