TORONTO – Ontario reported an all-time high of 5,790 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, experts warned, showing an incomplete picture of the virus’ presence in the province.
Record diagnoses surpassed the previous high of 4,812 set on April 16, but a member of the province’s scientific board said the overloaded testing system means the fifth wave of the Omicron-driven pandemic is likely even bigger than it was. it seems.
“Public health units are losing the ability to screen everyone with symptoms that are consistent with Omicron, so these official numbers are likely well below the true rate of COVID-19 in the community,” said the Dr. Fahad Razak, who is also an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
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“In all likelihood, you would have to multiply these numbers at least three or four times to get an idea of what is really happening.”
He said that even in the best of cases, the tests probably only detected about half of all cases in the province.
The overwhelming number of cases makes it more important than ever for Ontarians to be careful with their contacts, he said.
“You have to assume that anyone you come across has Omicron,” Razak said.
“It’s really about trying to protect ourselves as much as possible during the surge and protecting the healthcare system. That is the most important goal. “
Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician in Burlington, Ontario, who has made a name for herself by sharing information about COVID-19 online, agreed that the official case count was likely incomplete.
“So many people with COVID-19 symptoms? unable to get an appointment for PCR test, ”he tweeted.
The London-Middlesex Health Unit, for example, tweeted that demand for PCR tests “currently exceeds local capacity to perform the tests.”
“If you develop respiratory symptoms, consider your illness as COVID-19, even without a positive test result,” the health unit said Wednesday.
Ottawa Public Health made a similar call earlier in the week.
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The province has asked the overwhelmed public health units to focus their contact tracing efforts on the highest-risk communities to better protect the health care system.
Health Minister Christine Elliott said 440 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 on Thursday, including 136 who are fully vaccinated.
He said 169 were in intensive care, 32 of whom are fully vaccinated.
The province also recorded seven new virus-related deaths on Thursday.
Provincial data shows that 86.7 percent of Ontario residents age five and older have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 81.2 percent have two.
Elliott said 253,000 doses were administered in the previous 24 hours.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
Reference-globalnews.ca