“This is not the news any of us wanted, but hospitalizations are on the rise, ICU beds are filling up, variants are spreading and even people who were convinced they didn’t need to worry gets sick, ”Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference on Tuesday adding that this is a third wave of the“ very serious ”pandemic.
Admissions to intensive care units rose 18% just last week and new variants are putting “strong pressure” on hospital capacity, the Public Health Agency of Canada said.
“Many of them deteriorate quite quickly and have to be admitted to the ICU immediately, and then spend quite a few stays in the ICU, which means there is also an impact on capacity,” Tam said.
While hospitalizations have not increased dramatically, there are now more inpatients who need critical care, as the variants make them more serious, he said.
In Toronto, public health officials ordered all elementary and high schools to drop face-to-face learning and move to remote learning, effective Wednesday, as they try to “reverse the rising infection they are currently facing. the province, ”Toronto Public Health said.
Ontario, whose capital is Toronto, is debating new and more restrictive measures, including a home stay order, as its ICU capacity is increasingly strained.
The order will be in effect April 7-18, according to guidelines issued Tuesday, and may be extended.
“Current circumstances require that difficult decisions have to be made at the local level to protect everyone in our school communities, including students, teachers and staff,” Toronto Public Health said.
British Columbia has moved to close Whistler Ski Resort and further restrict meetings in the province, which now also faces an outbreak of the virus among NHL hockey players with the Vancouver Canucks .
This week, Canada has surpassed one million cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. Tam called this milestone a “total reminder” of all that Canadians have gone through.
Although variant B.1.1.7 has probably become the dominant variant in Canada, Tam said his team is also monitoring a significant outbreak of variant P.1, first detected in Brazil and that it is now increasing in some western countries of Canada. provinces.
On Monday, the British Columbia Health Minister said the number of P.1 variant cases in his province nearly doubled over the Easter holiday weekend.
“The more transmissive variants of Covid-19 will eventually take over,” Adrian Dix said in a Monday update.
CNN’s Elizabeth Stuart and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.