Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

[SvennoJ]

Today I was the only one wearing a mask in the supermarket. Soap dispensers are empty, no more cleaning supplies for the carts. The plexiglass at the counters is still up as well as a few social distancing signs but that's it now. Not that anyone social distances anymore.

All the talk is about the summer of recovery
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/summer-of-recovery-pandemic-stricken-tourism-industry-sees-signs-of-optimism-1.5971016

Canada Day has kicked off the unofficial start of summer, and the tourism sector is hopeful the first season in three years largely free of COVID-19 restrictions will marshal a much-needed boost for a pandemic-stricken industry.


That while BA.5 is spreading faster. Since Ontario started reporting once a week, cases have gone up 135% week over week.
Hospitalizations are going up as well:
https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-reports-week-over-week-uptick-in-covid-hospitalizations-for-first-time-since-may-1.5970137

The latest data from the Ministry of Health suggests that there are now 585 people in Ontario hospitals testing positive for the virus, up from 486 at this time last week.

It is just one of several public health indicators that appear to be headed in the wrong direction after a sustained decline in viral activity through most of the spring. The positivity rate on PCR tests was also up over the last week, with the seven-day average going from 7.64 on June 23 to 9.82 as of today.

Meanwhile, the seven-day average for new cases detected through PCR testing was up 34 per cent week-over-week to 916. Experts, however, caution that the true number of infections is likely up to 10 times the PCR number due to limited eligibility for testing.


Not as bad as in France yet which is thinking about making masks mandatory again
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/with-hospitalizations-up-france-weighs-return-to-masks-1.5971678

Tourism is booming again in France -- and so is COVID-19. French officials have "invited" or "recommended" people to go back to using face masks but stopped short of renewing restrictions that would scare visitors away or revive antigovernment protests.

Virus-related hospitalizations rose quickly in France over the past two weeks, with nearly 1,000 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized per day, according to government data. Infections are also rising across Europe and the United States, but France has an exceptionally high proportion of people in the hospital, according to Our World in Data estimates.


Yep, this way it will never end
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/physician-expects-new-covid-19-variants-every-few-months-whole-world-is-a-petri-dish-1.5970123

An emergency room physician in Toronto is warning that COVID-19 variants will continue to "mutate endlessly" as the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are poised to become the dominant strains of the virus.

"The whole world's a petri dish," Dr. Kashif Pirzada told CTV News Channel on Thursday. "We're going to have these waves every two to three months."