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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-omicron-wave-deaths-1.6331430
If Omicron is a less severe version of coronavirus, why are so many people dying in Ontario?
With 1,000 COVID-19 deaths so far, January on track to be one of Ontario's deadliest pandemic months
Mike Crawley · CBC News · Posted: Jan 29, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: January 29
While Ontario's rate of new COVID-19 infections appears to have slowed from its record peaks, the daily death toll in this Omicron wave is still on the rise and approaching a level as high as any point in the pandemic.
There are also no signs that the death rate is slowing down. Scientists expect Ontario's daily reports to continue to trend upwards into February, even after the province begins easing COVID-19 restrictions on Monday.
During the third week of January, the most recent week for which full figures are available, Public Health Ontario recorded an average of 52 COVID-19 deaths per day, a rate only exceeded at the peaks of the first and second waves.
The mounting number of deaths raises questions. If Omicron is a less severe version of the novel coronavirus than previous variants, why are so many people dying — and what's going on with the effectiveness of vaccines?
The answers are found in the sheer numbers of people getting infected by the Omicron variant, says Tara Moriarty, an infectious disease researcher and associate professor at the University of Toronto.
"We're seeing scales of infection that we have not seen in the entire epidemic to date," Moriarty said in an interview. "There are going to be a lot of deaths, even if the virus is half as severe [as previous variants]."
Public Health Ontario's official count of COVID-19 deaths so far this month has already exceeded 1,000. Given the lag between the day that a death occurs and its entry into the provincial database, this puts January 2022 on track to be one of the three deadliest calendar months of the pandemic.
The growing death toll shows the impact of the Omicron wave, says Dr. Jerome Leis, medical director of infection prevention and control at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.
The Omicron variant "has likely infected more people in five weeks than all of the rest of the pandemic combined," he said in an interview.
"By virtue of so many infections, even a milder severity will translate into a significant number of hospitalizations and deaths, and that's what we're seeing now."
Among those dying are some people who had been vaccinated against COVID-19. However, that is not proof that the vaccines aren't working...
If Omicron is a less severe version of coronavirus, why are so many people dying in Ontario?
With 1,000 COVID-19 deaths so far, January on track to be one of Ontario's deadliest pandemic months
Mike Crawley · CBC News · Posted: Jan 29, 2022 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: January 29
While Ontario's rate of new COVID-19 infections appears to have slowed from its record peaks, the daily death toll in this Omicron wave is still on the rise and approaching a level as high as any point in the pandemic.
There are also no signs that the death rate is slowing down. Scientists expect Ontario's daily reports to continue to trend upwards into February, even after the province begins easing COVID-19 restrictions on Monday.
During the third week of January, the most recent week for which full figures are available, Public Health Ontario recorded an average of 52 COVID-19 deaths per day, a rate only exceeded at the peaks of the first and second waves.
The mounting number of deaths raises questions. If Omicron is a less severe version of the novel coronavirus than previous variants, why are so many people dying — and what's going on with the effectiveness of vaccines?
The answers are found in the sheer numbers of people getting infected by the Omicron variant, says Tara Moriarty, an infectious disease researcher and associate professor at the University of Toronto.
"We're seeing scales of infection that we have not seen in the entire epidemic to date," Moriarty said in an interview. "There are going to be a lot of deaths, even if the virus is half as severe [as previous variants]."
Public Health Ontario's official count of COVID-19 deaths so far this month has already exceeded 1,000. Given the lag between the day that a death occurs and its entry into the provincial database, this puts January 2022 on track to be one of the three deadliest calendar months of the pandemic.
The growing death toll shows the impact of the Omicron wave, says Dr. Jerome Leis, medical director of infection prevention and control at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.
The Omicron variant "has likely infected more people in five weeks than all of the rest of the pandemic combined," he said in an interview.
"By virtue of so many infections, even a milder severity will translate into a significant number of hospitalizations and deaths, and that's what we're seeing now."
Among those dying are some people who had been vaccinated against COVID-19. However, that is not proof that the vaccines aren't working...
