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Yu Ruidong / China News Service via Getty Images
- Canada’s third wave of coronavirus is affecting young people more severely than before.
- Top health officials say the rise in infections is driven by new variants of Covid-19.
- The new wave is causing closures and new restrictions in several provinces.
- See more stories on the Business Insider SA home page.
Canada is battling a surge in coronavirus infections fueled by new variants that are making adults sick much younger than hospitals are used to seeing.
On Saturday night, the nation surpassed one million registered cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. The third wave of coronavirus has mainly affected the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, prompting all three to implement new restrictions to stop the spread.
Canada’s director of public health, Dr. Theresa Tam, recently announced a 64% increase in new cases related to coronavirus variants, 90% of which involved variant B.1.1.7 that was first encountered. time in the UK in September. Ontario, in particular, has reported an influx of much younger ICU patients. Almost half of the province’s Covid-19 ICU patients are under the age of 60, authorities announced this week.
“It’s getting quite alarming here. It’s spreading fast, and it’s much faster than the last two waves,” Toronto-based emergency physician Dr. Kashif Pirzada told CNN. “The people filling the ICU right now are in their 30s, 40s and 50s.”
Pirzada recently tweeted images of cloudy-looking lungs from 30-year-old ICU patients.
This is a thread of cases to make it understood that the Covid variant is brutalizing young people. Post your own cases in the answers.
A 35-year-old teacher with no medical problems contracted severe Covid from a student. 65% sat outside and went directly to our ICU. UK variant. pic.twitter.com/9nTM19wqw2 – Kashif Pirzada, MD (@KashPrime) March 21, 2021
“As the new variants spread, you will see that Covid-19 is killing faster and younger,” Adalsteinn Brown, senior scientific adviser to the government of Ontario, said at a press conference this week. “It is spreading much faster than before and we cannot vaccinate fast enough to break this third wave.”
Ontario has enacted a month-long “emergency brake” in response to rising infections. The new restrictions will close gyms, indoor dining rooms and personal care services, CBC News reported.
Quebec, meanwhile, has implemented a lockdown in three different cities, closing non-essential schools and businesses and enacting a stricter curfew. British Columbia has also banned indoor meals, worship services and indoor physical activities for three weeks.
Canada has had a remarkably slow vaccine launch, mainly due to dose import delays. The country lacks the capacity to manufacture its own vaccines. As of April 1, only 1.75% of the population was fully vaccinated and only 11.86% had received at least one dose, according to government data.
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