THE PANDEMIC IS NOT OVER
Covid-19 resurgence sparks concerns as hospitalizations increase across Canada

By Karen Graham
August 24, 2023

Image: © AFP/File ANWAR AMRO

As COVID-19 hospitalizations rise, disease experts are concerned about how a new wave could be different from previous ones.

Data shows that in general, Covid cases declined slowly across Canafa from the beginning of the year until August. On August 15, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported an 11 percent increase in COVID-related hospitalizations compared to the week before.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogoch told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday there are some seasonal components to the rise in COVID cases, however, unlike the flu, this disease is present year-round.

“COVID will wax and wane but it just seems to always linger in the background,” he said.

We can’t blame the summer months for the upswing in Covid cases. According to data released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), COVID-related hospitalizations have been resurging since last spring.

The data states from April 2022 to March 2023, there was a 19 percent increase in hospital stays in Canada for patients with a COVID-19 diagnosis compared to the same period the previous year.

An interesting observation in this latest wave of hospitalizations is the mean age of the patients. The age now averages 75 compared to 63 years old in the previous year, the data showed.

Another key difference is the average length of time spent in the hospitals, which increased from 13 days to 20. However, while patients are spending more time at the hospital, the mortality rate decreased by 1 percent.

Between 2022 and 2023, COVID-19-related deaths in hospitals represented about 10 percent of hospitalizations, compared to 11 percent the previous year.

What will the impact be on the healthcare system?

Just a few weeks ago, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) released a report showing that Canada saw a 13 percent drop in surgeries in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As was expected, overtime issues were noted, primarily due to the Covid pandemic, increasing from 2020 to 2021 by 15 percent. The findings also shone a spotlight on other healthcare issues, including staff shortages and burnout, levels of access to personal health information, and the roughly one in 10 Canadians who say they don’t have a regular healthcare provider.

Even though hospitalization cases are on the rise, Dr. Bogoch said he doesn’t think this wave will overwhelm the healthcare system as it did in previous years.

“I don’t think we’re gonna see scenes like we saw in 2020 and 2021, where provinces were running out of intensive care unit beds and we were bringing health-care providers from other provinces in to help out,” he said.

While it might not reach those extreme levels, the infectious disease expert added the healthcare system is still stretched in its capacity. “Let’s not pretend for a second that our healthcare system is doing well. It absolutely isn’t,” he said. “It needs a lot of tender loving care and support.”