COVID Update: From September 12 to 18, Canada has reported 195 new deaths with count of total active cases at 45,457 (as of September 18). 638 cases are serious or critical which is roughly 1% of total active cases. Death rate among the COVID infected people is 2%. Delta variant is officially considered to be driving this 4th wave of COVID. Highest count of new cases was 8,792 reported on September 13 and highest count of deaths was 45 on September 17. Daily average of new cases during this week, was around 4,430 and daily average of new deaths was around 28.
As compared to last week’s report, daily average of new cases has increased by 815 and daily average of deaths has increased by 3.
As of September 18, 79.35% of Canada’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated, while around 86.32% have received at least 1 dose. So far, data has shown that around 87.5% of the new cases are coming among unvaccinated individuals and 2% of the new cases are among fully vaccinated. Delta variant is spreading rapidly in Canada and it is also infecting fully vaccinated individuals. Only 0.6% of new cases were among fully vaccinated in our August 22 report. As of today, new cases in fully vaccinated have increased 4 times as compared to that report.
Provincial COVID Overview:
Most affected province in Canada is Alberta at this time and has declared medical emergency. As of September 17, Alberta reported 2020 new cases with total active cases at 19,201. Alberta has the lowest vaccination rate among all the Canadian provinces with 71.76% fully vaccinated eligible population. Alberta has now made vaccination mandatory for residents working in government jobs.
Apart from Alberta, almost all of the Canadian provinces have now announced that certain places and events such as restaurant, weddings, fitness centers, casinos, schools, etc will require residents to show proof of vaccination. This measure is to encourage people to get vaccinated and also boost confidence among fully vaccinated. Click here to know acceptable proof of vaccination and requirements. Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau also tweeted on September 18 that their government will make sure that only fully vaccinated Canadians use plane or train.
As per the recent statement of Dr. Theresa Tam’s (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada) latest statement on September 17, during this fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, infections and severe outcomes have several key features:
- Nationally, the highly contagious Delta Variant of Concern (VOC), accounts for the majority of recently reported cases, is associated with increased severity, and may reduce the effectiveness of vaccines
- Most reported cases, hospitalisations and deaths are occurring among unvaccinated people
- Virus spread in areas with low vaccination coverage presents an ongoing risk for emergence of and replacement by new VOCs, including a risk of VOCs with the ability to evade vaccine protection.
