Canada | Omicron
Omicron variant causing increased hospitalisations, ICU admissions in Canada: Public health officer
Ottawa/IBNS: Large volume of Omicron cases driving hospitalisations in Canada in the wrong direction, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, has said.
"While surveillance/recent studies indicate that risk of hospitalization is lower for #Omicron compared to Delta, [a] sudden acceleration [of] Omicron with an enormous volume of cases is driving up severe illness trends," Tam tweeted on Jan 9.
"Given current daily case counts are already ~400% higher than the 3rd wave peak [on average 8,730 cases were reported daily at the mid-April 2021 peak], it is not unexpected we'll see further increases in hospitalization trends," she said.
2/3 Given current daily case counts are already ~400% higher than the 3rd wave peak [on average 8,730 cases were reported daily at the mid-April 2021 peak], it is not unexpected we’ll see further increases in hospitalisation trends.
— Dr. Theresa Tam (@CPHO_Canada) January 9, 2022
Tam also said that an increasing trend of hospitaliszations and ICU admissions in the wrong direction will continue due to the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.
Increasingly restricted and strained lab-based testing capacity reportedly has caused reporting of true case counts likely far higher than reported, experts say.
Several provinces reportedly said they would report figures that separate the number of hospitalisations solely due to COVID-19 from those in hospital for another medical issue.
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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