COVID-19: Hospital Admissions Better or Worse Now?
In the 3rd summer of the pandemic, are things better or worse? Looking at the # of hospital admissions because of COVID-19 in Ottawa from July 1st to August 15 in 2020, 2021, and 2022 things are definitely worse. 🧵1/
Admissions because of COVID are 18.5x higher this summer than 2021 and 8.4x higher than 2020. Removing all COVID-19 protective measures maybe wasn't the best idea? 2/
Similarly looking at Canada as a whole, hospitalizations are 7.6x higher now than they were this time last year and every day in 2022 has been above the average for 2020-2021 (
Hospitals are overwhelmed with an increase in demand but also not enough staff to take care of patients at the same time. Hamilton Health Sciences had to put out a message about high wait times in emergency and extremely high patient volumes (
@HamHealthSci currently have 180 staff and physicians off work because of COVID-19 infections/isolation, and dealing with 5 COVID-19 outbreaks in their hospitals with over 100 patients infected. 5/
Since people seem to care more about airport delays than hospitals crumbling these days, here is some news for you. 6/
The Transport Minister told the House of Commons transport committee that COVID-19 is to blame for airport delays, causing labour shortages that are primarily contributing to delays ( ottawa.citynews.ca/local-news/cov… ). 7/
Imagine if a proper ventilation standard was created to address aerosol transmission of viruses that could significantly reduce the risk of getting infected in the first place (from all airborne viruses). 8/
That new ventilation standard also required buildings to actually implement it and test regularly to ensure the systems were functioning properly and meeting the standard. 9/
In addition if people were actually willing to wear masks when community transmission was high, this would further help prevent many of these infections that are causing the staffing shortages that are impacting your daily lives. 10/
Whether you care about travel or being treated at a hospital if you are sick, it helps all sectors and still works no matter how much the viruses mutate. 11/
With school starting soon, large numbers of close contact networks will be created again that will facilitate spread even more so we better move #FASSST to try and make schools a more safe learning environment now (
Not only would this help reduce learning disruption for our children, and prevent transmission back into the community, but will actually protect the health of our children from long-term complications and higher risk for life-threatening diagnoses (
In Ontario it looks like data as of Aug. 12, 2022 is showing BA.2 is mostly gone but BA.4.6 and multiple BA.5.* variants are still on the rise ( app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjo… ) H/T: @Mike_Honey_ 🧵1/
COVID wastewater levels are finally starting to go down in most (but not all) places. Ottawa saw a significant drop over the past week but is starting to point upward again ( gilchrist.ca/jeff/COVID-19/… ). 2/
COVID-19: Masks mandates reduced Alberta school outbreaks by 68%
In Feb 2022 Alberta was given data that schools are hubs of COVID-19 infections, cases are spread from schools to community and increased risk of children hospitalization each wave (
The very disappointing part is that the Alberta government buried their own analysis and only a court-order was able to bring it to light for the public to see (
They looked at outbreaks in schools with and without mandates and found schools without mask mandates had 3.2x more outbreaks in their schools on average (page 75). 3/
COVID-19: Improving ventilation reduced likelihood of infection by 80% in schools
A preprint study found the relative risk of infection decreased with the increase in ventilation for those equipped with mechanical systems ( arxiv.org/abs/2207.02678 ). H/T: @linseymarr 🧵1/
The study investigated more than 10,000 classrooms in Italy. Ventilation rates ranging from 10-14 L/sec per person reduced the likelihood of infection for students by 80% compared to classrooms with only natural ventilation. 2/
They determined that relative risk was reduced 12%-15% for each additional unit of ventilation rate per person. 3/
It would be great if our children could have less disruption at school this year since we know what needs to be done, it just needs to get done. 2/
Now that we are on the 7th wave, it should be obvious to policy makers that vaccines alone are not enough so we need to implement additional measures that are known to reduce the risk of infection. 3/
COVID-19: Clinical impact of BA.5 and Ontario Update
A pre-print study in Denmark found a 1.65x increased risk of hospitalization for BA.5 infection compared to BA.2 and similar 3rd dose vaccine effectiveness for BA.5 and BA.2 infection ( papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… ). 🧵1/
People with 3 doses of vaccine and a prior Omicron infection was still 93.6% protective against BA.5 compared to 3 doses and prior Alpha (65.4%) or Delta (46.9% ) variant infection. Every time you get exposed to the virus however, there is a chance you can develop Long COVID. 2/
I have heard from so many people in Ottawa who have become infected now, many of whom had recently attended outdoor events like Bluesfest or even outdoor patios. In crowded areas these latest Omicron variants are so transmissible people are being infected outdoors. 3/
COVID-19: Finance sector noticing profound disruption to health of millions
Money talks and and the financial press is talking about how COVID-19 "is still causing profound disruption to the health of millions, with repercussions for society." ( ft.com/content/63dcc4… ).🧵1/
The UK has been hit with 3 Omicron variant waves this year and at the height of March's wave 1 in 13 people were infected with COVID-19. While vaccines have helped reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, the main concern is now Long COVID. 2/
The number of people dropping out of the labour force due to illness has increased dramatically during the pandemic in both the USA and UK. 3/