No new COVID wave ‘at this point’: Roussin

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This article was published 11/08/2022 (1489 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is not in a new, summer wave of COVID-19 infections, despite a reported increase in viral activity and hospitalizations, its chief provincial public health officer says.

“Up to now, we haven’t seen a dramatic increase in cases throughout this summer,” Dr. Brent Roussin said Thursday, after providing an update on the province’s monkeypox immunization campaign.

“We’re now seeing some increase, so we’ll have to follow that trend.”

For two consecutive weeks, public health has reported increased COVID-19 activity in its weekly epidemiology and surveillance reports.

Between July 31 and Aug. 6, the province reported a nearly three percentage point increase in the test positivity rate (to 20.8 per cent from 17.9 per cent) and a 35 per cent increase in laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases (to 347 from 257), compared to the week prior.

The province’s COVID-19 death toll also increased by 12 (totalling 2,079), including six people who died during the reporting period. Officials say delays in reporting deaths are to be expected because COVID-19 cases are no longer reported directly to public health.

Hospitalizations inched upwards, as 57 people were also admitted to hospital for the disease, including 12 to intensive care. Five long-term care outbreaks were added to the provincial totals.

Wastewater monitoring conducted in Winnipeg indicated an increase in viral activity, according to the province. As of late July, the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5 accounted for half of the province’s lab-confirmed and genetically sequenced COVID-19 cases.

However, pandemic hospitalization trends throughout the summer have remained “relatively flat,” Roussin said, adding the majority of people in hospital with COVID-19 are not there because of the novel coronavirus, but happen to test positive on admission.

“I wouldn’t call it a new wave at this point,” Roussin said. “We’ll have to keep following that trend.”

University of Saskatchewan epidemiologist Nazeem Muhajarine agreed with Roussin, adding publicly available provincial COVID-19 data is in line with trends seen across Canada.

However, the community health scientist noted Manitobans aged 60 or older accounted for about 70 per cent of hospitalizations in the past two reporting periods, compared to about 50 per cent for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In terms of getting a booster dose, even a second booster dose, the 60-plus people might have gotten it some time back, months back, so now that antibody protection that those booster vaccines had been offering them might be waning now,” Muhajarine said. “We know that BA.5 and BA.4 are very well-adapted, mutated to evade antibodies.”

Muhajarine said now is the time for public health officials to strongly encourage people who have yet to receive their first or second booster dose to roll up their sleeves.

According to the province, 83.1 per cent of Manitobans aged five and older were fully vaccinated as of Aug. 6, and 55.6 per cent of adults had received at least one booster shot.

“Getting a second booster will protect them through the summer months until the fall, when a new formulation of vaccines might be available that is more specific to Omicron,” Muhajarine said.

Spread of the virus in the community through August will also be important to watch in anticipation of school resuming in September, he added.

“If we’re seeing the trends continue in the next two weeks, that will really inform us what we need to do as schools are reopening,” he said. “This next two to three weeks will really tell us what kind of a fall and winter season we will have, not only with COVID but with other respiratory conditions.”

To date, 766 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given to children between six months and four years of age, and entered into the provincial immunization registry.

Doses given in Indigenous communities and at medical clinics, hospitals and other partners generally take longer to appear in the province’s database, a provincial spokesperson said Thursday.

Another 650 vaccination appointments for ages six months to four years old have been booked at provincial public health clinics. All Manitoba children in that age group (an estimated 76,700) were eligible to receive their first dose as of Aug. 5.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca