Ontario's sixth COVID-19 wave being driven by eased restrictions, science table head says

[BlueWavePsych]

The head of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table says it is "very clear" that Ontario is now in the middle of a sixth wave of the pandemic driven by a relaxing of restrictions in the province.

"Oh, we're in the middle of it," Dr. Peter Juni told CP24 Tuesday night when asked whether he thinks the province is in the midst of a new wave. "When you look at our wastewater, it's very clear. You can call it whatever you want, you know; whether it’s a resurgence of the Omicron wave we had or a sixth wave, the point is really to understand this is not a BA.2 wave."

Juni estimated, based on viral levels measured in wastewater, that Ontario is currently seeing somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 new infections per day. The real number of cases is almost impossible to measure because testing in the province has been severely scaled back.

The Ford government has been moving ahead with lifting COVID-19 restrictions in the province, with virtually all restrictions set to lift in April.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-s-sixth-covid-19-wave-being-driven-by-eased-restrictions-science-table-head-says-1.5841024

[Skittles]

1. gee, who could have predicted this

except ANYONE with critical thinking skills

[applegrove]

2. I am so pissed. People should never have been encouraged to

stop wearing masks. Grrrr.

[Pobeka]

3. Don't know how Canada does it, but CDC says in USA wastewater can't be directly related to cases ...

... only that when more viral samples are detected in wastewater than in a previous period, it's likely covid cases are increasing, but you don't know how much per capita the increase is.

Ultimately, hospitializations are the best metric these days to know if a new wave is in a region or not.

[BlueWavePsych]

4. Waste water detection correlates well with hospitalization not cases.

Since testing is no longer done systematically, there is no way to reliably correlate waste water detection with cases.

The key is hospital capacity in a region. If enough people are vaccinated (and boosted), those requiring hospitalization are significantly decreased. As long as hospitals are not overwhelmed, I suppose that is what is meant by living with the virus ie Covid-19.


More here ... https://globalnews.ca/news/8720190/canada-6th-covid-wave-explainer/

[Pobeka]

5. Where is the data showing it correlates well? I don't see it.

Thx in advance.

[BlueWavePsych]

6. Here are a few links. Enjoy.

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/phm/2021/04/public-health-measures-wastewater-surveillance.pdf

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/event-presentations/2021/covid-19-rounds-wastewater-surveillance-toronto.pdf

https://uwaterloo.ca/servos-group/research-activities/wastewater-surveillance-covid-19

https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/ontario-dashboard/

https://613covid.ca/wastewater/#

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/parts-of-central-ontario-wastewater-data-shows-increasing-covid-19-cases-1.5840231

[Pobeka]

7. Thanks! nt