Thought of the Day - January 23 2022 - By the Numbers

Both new cases and deaths around the world from COVID increased another 10% last week. Guess which country is reporting the highest number of cases per capita? Israel, followed by a spate of Western European countries.

Here in Canada, a number of provinces have declared that they have passed the peak of Omicron cases, and indeed case counts are now falling across the country. Test positivity rates in Canada are declining and for the first time since the beginning of November, the R1 value is below 1, meaning cases are reducting. While both of these figures were affected by the changes in our testing procedures implemented at the beginning of the year, the trend is clear. Our fifth wave is starting to come to an end.

This means that hospitalizations should be peaking very soon at around 11,000 and in early February new deaths from this wave will also peak, and start to decline.

At this point deaths are still increasing, half of which are still occurring in Quebec.

Genomic testing data is now being reported through the year-end. It looks like Omicron made up over half of the cases in mid-December and was dominant in Canada before the end of 2021.

While we are only at the beginning of the end, this week's shout-out should go to the people of Canada, who have soldiered through this, hopefully final, national wave.

Cheers

Cliff