The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is now 21 per cent higher than it was when Ontario entered a provincewide lockdown in December and a new report from a panel of scientific experts advising the Ford government warns that it could be weeks “until the full burden to the healthcare system becomes apparent.”
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report from Ontario’s science table reveals that variants of concern now account for 67 per cent of all cases in the province and are starting to have a “substantial impact” on the healthcare system due to a higher likelihood of hospitalization and even death.
While it has been widely publicized that the B.1.1.7 variant that now makes up the majority of COVID-19 cases in Ontario is more infectious, the report reveals that there is also a 63 per cent increased risk of hospitalization, a 103 per cent increased risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission and a 56 per cent increased risk of death from the so-called variants of concern.
They also say that the presence of the variants are driving a rise in hospitalizations involving younger people.
They say that between Dec. 14 and Dec. 20 there were 149 new admissions to the ICU but only 30 per cent of them involved people aged 59 or younger. By last week people aged 59 or younger accounted for 46 per cent of all 157 new ICU admissions.
“This is not a benign issue with these variants for people under 50 who felt that maybe with the initial COVID It wasn't a big deal. This for you now is a big deal,” Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said during a briefing on Monday afternoon, prior to the release of the report to the public.
shoutout to the open everything up crowd...