- The third coronavirus wave in Canada is making young people worse off than before.
- Top health officials say the increase in infections is fueled by new COVID-19 variants.
- The new wave is leading to blockages and new restrictions in several provinces.
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Canada is struggling with a surge of coronavirus infections fueled by new variants that make many younger adults sicker than hospitals are used to.
On Saturday night, the country has exceeded 1 million recorded cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. The third wave of coronavirus mainly affected the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, all three of which called for new restrictions to be put in place to stop the spread.
Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer in Canada, recently announced a 64% increase in new cases of coronavirus variants, 90% of which are the B.1.1.7 variant first found in the UK in September is, involved.
Ontario in particular has reported an influx of much younger patients into ICUs. Officials announced this week that nearly half of the COVID-19 ICU patients in the province are under 60.
“It’s getting pretty worrying here. It’s spreading fast and it’s much faster than the last two waves,” said dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency physician in Toronto, told CNN. “The people currently filling the ICU are all in their 30s, 40s and 50s.”
Pirzada recently tweeted images of cloudy lungs from ICU patients in their thirties.
—Kashif Pirzada, MD (@KashPrime) 21 March 2021
“As the new variants spread, you will see COVID-19 kill faster and younger,” Adalsteinn Brown, a senior scientific adviser to the Ontario government, told a news conference this week. “It’s spreading a lot faster than before and we can’t get vaccinated fast enough to break this third wave.”
Ontario introduced a month-long ’emergency brake’ in response to the increase in infections. The new restrictions will include gyms, indoor dining and personal care services, CBC News reports.
Quebec, meanwhile, has implemented a closure in three different cities, closing schools and non-essential businesses, and introducing stricter time management. British Columbia has also introduced a three-week ban on indoor eateries, worship services and indoor fitness activities.
Canada has had a remarkably slow vaccination of vaccines, mainly due to delays in importing doses. The country does not have the capacity to produce its own vaccines. As of April 1, only 1.75% of the population had been fully vaccinated, and according to government data, only 11.86% received at least one dose.