Canada Braces for Summer COVID Wave Amid New Variant Threats

This story is part of CBC Health’s Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news. A cursory glance at Canada’s wastewater trends for COVID-19 reveals a messy, unpredictable picture: Viral loads ebb and flow all throughout the year, at different times, in different cities. While SARS-CoV-2 is now a familiar threat, the virus isn’t neatly seasonal. It still circulates year-round, humming in the background. When you look at the other four coronaviruses — the cause of 25 per cent of our common colds — they do have this really stark seasonality. But SARS-CoV-2 is still in its infancy, said infectious diseases specialist Dr. Amesh Adalja. Close watchers of SARS-CoV-2’s ongoing evolution are tracking several new variants, all growing more dominant in recent months. This is a virus that was never known to infect humans before 2019, so it’s still a lot of evolutionary pressure, especially with the immunity that people have developed, Adalja said. Vaccine uptake has dropped off over the years, with fewer than two in 10 Canadians getting the most recent updated shots. For those who opt for an additional shot, there’s good news: COVID vaccines continue to be updated to better match circulating strains.
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