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 are making younger people sicker and sending more to the hospital.
“This is not the news that any of us wanted, but hospital admissions are on the rise, IC beds are getting full, variants are spreading, and even people who convinced themselves they shouldn’t have to worry are getting sick,” the report said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. said at a press conference on Tuesday.
This is a “very serious” third wave of the pandemic, he added.
Trudeau made an emphatic appeal to young people, urging them to “stay at home,” saying that younger Canadians are getting sicker in this third wave.
The Canadian Public Health Agency said the number of admissions to intensive care has risen by 18% in the past week alone, saying the new variants are “ putting a heavy burden ” on hospital capacity.
“With increasing rates of infection, we are seeing a greater number of younger adults with COVID-19 being treated in the hospital,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer.
“Many of them deteriorate quite quickly and have to be admitted to the IC quite immediately, and after that they stay in the IC for quite a long time, which means there is also a capacity impact,” she added.
Tam explained that while hospital admissions have not increased dramatically, more of the admitted patients now require critical care, as variants make them more severely ill. She added that more than 15,000 variant cases had been discovered so far, the vast majority of which were the B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the UK.
While the B.1.1.7 variant has probably now become the dominant variant in Canada, Tam said her team is also closely watching a major breakout of the P.1. variant, first discovered in Brazil and now rising in some western Canadian provinces.
On Monday, the UK Health Minister said the number of P.1 cases. variant in its province nearly doubled over the Easter weekend.
“The most permeable variants of COVID-19 will eventually take over,” the minister said during a briefing from Covid on Monday.
British Columbia has moved to close the Whistler ski area and further curtail rallies in the county, now also with an outbreak of the virus among NHL hockey players with the Vancouver Canucks.
The province of Alberta also confirmed that it was dealing with new clusters of cases related to the P.1. variant.
Ontario, meanwhile, is debating new and more restrictive measures, including house arrest, as ICU capacity is increasingly strained.