Canada is entering its fall respiratory virus season with COVID-19 activity on the rise once again, and older adults are bearing almost the entire burden of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, according to new federal surveillance data.
The Public Health Agency of Canada reported 884 COVID-19 detections and 35 outbreaks during the week ending September 26, based on figures released on October 2. Laboratories identified the virus in 3.8 percent of tests, a rate officials described as very low but increasing. COVID-19 recorded the highest positivity rate among the three major respiratory viruses tracked nationally, ahead of influenza and RSV.
Seniors account for the majority of cases
Adults aged 65 and older represented 62 percent of the 851 weekly detections for which age information was available. They also recorded the highest hospitalization rate: participating provinces and territories logged 166 COVID-19-associated hospitalizations that week, an overall rate of 0.5 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those 65 and older reached 2.6 per 100,000.
Since the current surveillance season began on August 30, laboratories have reported 2,537 COVID-19 detections from 81,399 tests, along with 514 hospitalizations. Sixteen deaths have been recorded in that period, every one of them involving an adult aged 65 or older.
Care homes remain the epicenter of outbreaks
Of the 35 test-confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in the latest reporting week, 57 percent occurred in long-term care facilities. Since the end of August, 99 COVID-19 outbreaks have been recorded, with care homes accounting for 51 percent of the seasonal total and hospitals for 33 percent.
COVID-19 was linked to roughly 67 percent of the 52 laboratory-confirmed respiratory virus outbreaks reported that week, placing facilities caring for older and medically vulnerable residents at the center of the country’s reported outbreak burden.
Health officials cautioned that the laboratory figures reflect infections picked up through participating testing systems, which frequently focus on hospital patients, emergency department visits, outbreak investigations and people at higher risk of severe illness, meaning many community infections go uncounted. A separate pediatric network, SPRINT-KIDS, has reported 13 child hospitalizations and two intensive care admissions since August 30, with no pediatric deaths.
Source: Thailand Medical News