A COVID-19 resurgence is underway in Canada, says Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam.
“As of March the 31st, daily average case counts have increased by 28 per cent nationally,” Tam said Friday while presenting the latest national pandemic projections.
The modelling indicates that, as far as they can be measured given the current level of testing, cases and severe outcomes have declined significantly since the peak of the Omicron wave. However, disease activity “remains elevated and is rising in some parts of the country.”
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The more transmissible BA.2 variant, waning immunity, as well as the increase in in-person activities appear to be associated with the current uptick.
As COVID-19 restrictions continue to be eased across Canada, now more than two years into the pandemic, Tam said that the country is in a “period of transition.”
As part of this, the Public Health Agency of Canada is anticipating the path out of the pandemic “will not be linear.”
To buoy the push towards getting back to normal, the government is continuing to encourage the use of masks, and suggesting those who have not yet received a COVID-19 booster dose do so.
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The videoconference feed of Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam is seen in a interpreter’s booth during a news conference on the COVID-19 pandemic xjmtzywand the omicron variant, in Ottawa, on Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
