The pandemic’s seventh wave seems to be leveling off in Huron and Perth counties, local COVID-19 figures suggest.
Huron Perth public health reported six active outbreaks in the region Wednesday, three fewer than last week, and recent wastewater surveillance in Stratford and Goderich also suggests COVID-19 levels are plateauing, the health unit said via email.
Although the health unit doesn’t have a complete data for August, 9.3 per cent of the region’s PCR tests were coming back positive at the end of July, a drop from a seventh wave peak of 14 per cent earlier last month.
In Ontario, those tests are still reserved for people facing the highest risk of infection.
Three people in the region were in hospital Wednesday due to COVID-19, a decrease from a seventh-wave peak of five in mid-July.
Whether or not the pandemic’s seventh wave has peaked in Huron-Perth “is not clear cut,” health unit officials said, but “there are signs of disease activity plateauing in late July/early August and data suggest that we will see trends decrease in the coming weeks.”
The latest COVID-related death in Huron-Perth – the region’s 119th overall – was reported Aug. 10. The death was reported in the community but wasn’t connected to a local outbreak, the health unit confirmed.
No new deaths were reported in Huron-Perth on Wednesday.
Dr. Kieran Moore, the province’s chief medical officer of health, told the Canadian Press this month that key COVID-19 indicators in Ontario, including hospitalizations and wastewater surveillance, are peaking or already trending downward.
Public Health Ontario recently reported COVID-19 case rates decreased in 22 of Ontario’s 34 health units for the week ending July 30, with per cent positivity down slightly week over week, and hospital admissions decreasing to 306 compared to 463 the previous week.
There were 46 COVID-19 deaths reported in Ontario for the week ending July 30, compared to 75 the week before.
Moore said he anticipates that the overall risk and impact on the health sector will continue decreasing through August.
Looking ahead to the fall, a new wave of COVID-19 may not be as bad as Moore would have predicted a few months ago, he said, though colder weather pushing more activities indoors does increase risk.
A lot of Ontarians have already been infected with the Omicron variant—seroprevalence studies suggest half the population has natural immunity, he said—and that combined with high vaccination rates and the fact that a new variant of concern has not yet emerged all bode well, Moore said.
“It will be difficult for a very similar virus to propagate in our populations,” he said. “So we’re scouring the globe with Public Health Ontario, Public Health Agency of Canada to try to see if there’s a new variant out there that is posing a risk to us. But we do see a period of calm in the coming weeks and months, because we’re not able to see a new threat on the horizon at present.”
There is still a risk of reinfection with Omicron, Moore said, but people who have been vaccinated and infected are much better protected than people with an infection but no vaccination.
-With files from the Canadian Press