COVID19 HASN'T GONE ANYWHERE IN CANADA

Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada:

COVID-19 may no longer be top of mind for Canadians, but there are still more cases and hospitalizations now than at some of the worst points of the pandemic — and while we may have moved on, the virus definitely hasn't.

Canada has lifted almost all public health measures as COVID-19 levels continue to drop from the peak of the devastating Omicron wave that overwhelmed testing capacity and fuelled a record surge in hospitals across the country

But a recent rise in global COVID-19 cases, the spread of a more contagious Omicron subvariant and a spike in early surveillance signals across Canada has experts increasingly worried we could be on the verge of another surge.

'This is not over yet' 

A steep drop in testing across much of the country has blurred the picture of how much the virus is circulating, yet other metrics such as wastewater data and hospitalizations suggest COVID-19 levels remain higher than at many other points in the pandemic.