Most COVID cases in Montreal are detected in young people

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Montreal reports nearly 3,700 cases, but the actual number is undoubtedly higher, health officials say.

Author of the article:

René Bruemmer

Publication date:

December 23, 2021 • 58 minutes ago • 4 minute read

People wait in line on Plessis St. to be admitted to the COVID testing clinic at Notre-Dame Hospital on December 22, 2021.
People wait in line on Plessis St. to be admitted to the COVID testing clinic at Notre-Dame Hospital on December 22, 2021. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

As cases increase at an exponential rate and hospital beds are expected to be filled to maximum in early January, Montreal’s director of public health called on citizens to limit social contacts to protect already vulnerable citizens. health workers.

Non-essential health care services will be reduced in the coming days, and some hospital emergency rooms will have their hours reduced so that staff can help out in overloaded health care institutions.

Montreal reported 3,668 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, 90 percent of which were identified as the Omicron variant, Mylène Drouin said during a press conference on the coronavirus. There are more than 14,000 known active cases in the city, but given the limits of the testing, the actual number is much higher, he said.

Between 18 and 20 percent of the people who go to the testing centers are positive, “which means that one in five people who come are positive,” Drouin said. “This is a level we’ve never seen before.”

The new wave powered by the Omicron variant has changed the profile of those who tested positive. Younger people between the ages of 18 and 44 account for the majority of cases, more than 60%.

“Clearly, it is young adults who become infected through social contacts and at events,” Drouin said.

Montreal’s worst-hit districts have shifted from primarily low-income or congested districts to those in the core core with a high percentage of youth: Plateau-Mont-Royal, Petite-Patrie, Mile-End, Villeray, Downtown Montreal, and Hochelaga- Maisonneuve.

Hospitalizations have increased, with 181 beds filled with COVID-19 patients, but the number of deaths has not increased.

“Right now it is a younger population that is affected,” he said. “Our hope is to cut transmission just before Christmas to prevent the spikes that we are seeing in the young population from spreading to the elderly, such as their parents, their grandparents or people with chronic diseases.”

With the increase in cases, the Montreal public health department can no longer keep up with contact tracing. Its testing centers are overwhelmed even though it has increased staffing by 30 percent.

It is giving the following recommendations:

  • If you have symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, loss of smell), wear a mask, isolate, and get tested, either at a facility or with a rapid test.
  • A positive rapid test result is sufficient; it is not necessary to verify the results at a PCR testing center.
  • If positive, isolate for 10 days from the time you started having symptoms or tested positive.
  • Members of the same household must also isolate themselves for 10 days.
  • Contact anyone you have been in contact with up to 48 hours before symptoms start and ask them to isolate themselves for 10 days if they have been in close contact (meaning more than 15 minutes together indoors without a mask, for example, at a party, dinner, out for a beer or in the car).
  • If you don’t have symptoms, don’t go to a testing center just to see if it’s safe to go to a party or gathering (Drouin noted that you’re not supposed to do those things anyway).
  • Avoid seeing older relatives if possible.
  • Get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Sonia Bélanger, director of the regional health authority Center-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, said they are very concerned that hospitalizations have increased by 60% in one week and are canceling surgeries and non-essential health procedures for free up at least 500 beds for COVID-19 patients.

The health system is at Level 3. If you go up to Level 4, as happened during the first and second waves, when Quebec saw 800 people hospitalized, you will find ways to free up to 1,000 beds.

“We have two priorities at the moment,” Bélanger said. “Strengthen our health system and increase our capacity to administer third doses.”

Hours of operation in some smaller hospital emergency rooms can be shortened to 12 hours a day to move staff to hospitals that see the most traffic. The number of surgeries will be reduced by 50 percent.

“It is clear that our health care system will face many challenges in the coming weeks,” said Bélanger. “Every reduction in contact you have could mean a breath of fresh air for our healthcare workers.”

There are 1,200 health workers missing from the Montreal network because they have COVID-19 or have been in contact with a positive case. Another 1,000 workers have been absent for other reasons.

Noting that most Montréal’s know someone who has tested positive, Drouin asked the still-healthy population to reach out to them.

Ask them how they are doing. Some will be alone during the holidays. Feel free to call them, make sure they are okay, see if they need medicine or food. “

If you have to see your parents, try doing it outside, he said.

This story will be updated.

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