Experts weigh in on COVID-19 situation in Saskatchewan | The Canadian News

The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 continues as Saskatchewan enters its third summer having to deal with the virus.

Experts say that, now more than ever, public health must make the message clear: be up to date with the right vaccines and boosters.

“Dropping COVID-19 is not going to help us individually or collectively,” said epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine.

Muhajarine said the power of vaccines to protect us against severe COVID-19 is a certainty, saying they are keeping the number of hospitalizations down and fewer people are ending up in the ICU.

“Many more public health messages need to be addressed,” Mahujarine said. “It seems like the public health voices have disappeared in the last few months, but COVID-19 has not disappeared. It’s very much present. People are still getting infected.”

Muhajarine explained that COVID-19 is affecting people at a more severe level and should not be compared to the common cold or flu, noting that it is much worse and adding that the virus is constantly evolving and continues to disrupt our lives much more than a seasonal flu.

With the new Omicron BA-4 and Omicron BA-5 subvariants, Muhajarine said these new variants are considered more infectious and contagious.

“Will we see the kind of number of cases increasing and along with that the hospitalizations that we are seeing in France, Portugal and many other European countries?” said Muhajarine. “It’s on us to expect to see it and act accordingly, discuss it and send it accordingly. That’s what you will want a prudent and safe kind of action and response.”

He said this lack of action, response and expectation will mean that people are not only going to face disruption in their lives, but we will continue to lose people to this virus. He said that if people continue to view COVID-19 lightly, the effects are only going to get worse.

“COVID will not simply go away in 10 days,” Muhajarine said. “It goes beyond even 14 days. It could be weeks, months, and it has been persistent. This is not something we want or risk continuing to have.”

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He said a lower number of cases in the warmer summer months has been typical, but the coming fall and winter could be a very different story, a reality that other experts also stress as Omicron subvariants have made their way into the province.

“We have clinical measurements,” said John Giesy, a University of Saskatchewan professor and wastewater researcher. “Some people where they are presenting to hospitals now are tested and were getting about 22 percent are the Omicron BA-5 subvariant.”

Giesy said his team at the University of Saskatchewan is now able to measure the level of the subvariants in city wastewater. He said that Omicron BA-5 variant peaks have taken off in the UK, but added that he is unsure if and when it will reach the province.

“It seems to be able to bypass immunity,” Giesy said, “either by vaccination or by prior infection. It does not appear, at least so far, in the UK to cause more severe disease than other Omicron subvariants.”

The BA-5 subvariant may be in Saskatoon, but has not yet occurred in Regina wastewater. However, unlike in Saskatoon, where virus levels are so low as to be barely detectable, levels are much higher in the capital’s wastewater and the decline there remains stagnant.

“We’re dropping below the high point of the Delta wave, essentially,” said Tzu-Chiao Chao, an environmental proteomics scientist at the University of Regina. “It’s still at a level where we’re about halfway to the detection limit, so it’s still quite remarkable.”

Chao believes it is only a matter of time before the subvariant shows up in his wastewater as well. He said that because of the known high transmission, the Omicron wave will cause more known cases than the Delta wave.

“Fundamentally, the current situation right now, probably for the next two months or so, will continue to remain at the lowest level of cases,” Chao said, “so the health care system will have spare capacity.”

“But, the big question is whether we’re going to drive new hospitalizations come fall, so that’s our biggest concern right now.”

Chao said that with these new subvariants constantly on the horizon, relief from the virus is not expected. He said the public may not feel that way, as it seems to come and go like cold and flu seasons, but he said the breaks between waves are much smaller and more support will be needed within the health care system. He said this will mean front-line workers will continue to work under extreme stress almost 80% of the year.