Thought of the Day - January 30 2022 - By the Numbers

"Numbers" are getting harder and harder to find as countries revamp or wind down their COVID reporting. That said, in aggregate around the world the Omicron wave has peaked (forget about Omicron 2 (B.1.640.2 or BA.2 for short), while it might be more transmissible it is not a major change).

Here in Canada, as predicted, hospitalizations have now peaked.

(Note due to testing changes we really can't compare the current hospitalization figures with those from earlier waves.)

However, there are still a number of regions in trouble. Specifically, NWT and PEI (soon to be followed by Nunavut), as they have had far less natural infection to this point.

So here we are. Since the beginning of the year "By the Numbers" has now progressed through peak Cases, now Hospitalization and soon peak Deaths, and then on to the final measure of the level of the pandemic in Canada, our Stringency Index (the level of pandemic restrictions still in place). Here Canada is not doing well ( Thought of the Day - January 28 2022 - Canada's Stringency Index ). According to OurWorldInData, which has proven to be a reliable source since the pandemic began, Canada has moved from the 44th most restrictive country in the world earlier in the month to now having the 10th highest level of restrictions - on par with places like China.

You see while most of the world is relaxing its pandemic restrictions we, for some reason, are still increasing ours.

This week there is only one shout-out, a shout-out to the people of Canada. People, we still have a problem!

Cheers

Cliff