Like the United States and other countries, Canada is grappling with a summer surge of COVID-19, experts say.
Doctors say people with flu-like symptoms are likely to have COVID. They should get tested to make sure.
Dr. Andrew Pinto, a public health specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says the disease doesn’t follow a seasonal cycle like the common cold or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
He points out that data from wastewater indicates “an upward trajectory” of disease activity. The doctor also says he is seeing more patients suffering from the virus in his general practice.
“The fact that the disease is spreading despite the absence of cold and dry weather, despite having fewer people indoors, as is normally seen in the case of respiratory pathogens such as influenza or RSV, surprises us a lot,” acknowledges Dr. Pinto.
Dr. Fahad Razak, former scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Group, says coronaviruses spread year-round.
Because COVID-19 is a relatively new phenomenon, the population has less immunity to it than the flu or RSV, adds the man who is an internal medicine specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital.
Summer can also be conducive to the spread of COVID-19, warns Dr. Razak.
“People are getting together more. They’re going to more concerts, for example,” he says.
While cold weather keeps people indoors during the winter, summer heat can also convince people to stay indoors to enjoy air conditioning, which can help the virus spread, the doctor said.
According to Dr. Pinto, the summer wave of COVID-19 comes at a time when individual immunity is reduced. “People are less resistant to the virus because they haven’t had it for a long time or they haven’t been vaccinated for a long time. Many people weren’t vaccinated last fall or winter.”
Dr Razak said a number of patients had to be hospitalised in recent weeks, with the most severe cases “very, very rare”.
However, more vulnerable people like seniors or those with compromised immune systems can get very sick, doctors warn. That’s one reason why it’s important to know if someone who appears to have the flu doesn’t actually have COVID-19.
Vulnerable people usually don’t want to be exposed to any respiratory virus, but that’s doubly important for COVID, Razak says.
“If I catch the virus, will I visit my parents, who are very vulnerable octogenarians? Of course not! I will be careful for a few days. I will wait until my symptoms disappear, until I have no fever, until I am not coughing before going to see them.”
It is better to get tested as soon as possible and start taking medication in the first days of infection.
The Public Health Agency of Canada told The Canadian Press that the next vaccines planned for the fall target the most recent variants.
Health Canada is reviewing mRNA vaccines to combat the KP.2 variant as well as protein subunit vaccines – which use weakened or inactivated fragments of the virus – to counter the JN.1 variant.
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