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COVID-19 activity showing early signs that it may be increasing, new PHAC data says

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 15 Aug, 2023 11:14 AM

New data from the Public Health Agency of Canada suggests that COVID-19 infections may be slowly starting to rise again in Canada.

On its website, the agency says there are signs of continued fluctuations in some COVID-19 activity indicators after a long period of gradual decline.

It says this may be an early sign of increases, although the overall COVID-19 activity is still low to moderate across the provinces and territories.

McMaster University immunologist Dawn Bowdish says the XBB family, an offshoot of Omicron, is dominant in Canada right now.

That family includes the EG.5 subvariant, which she expects will start dominating in the coming weeks.

Bowdish says EG.5 appears to be more contagious than past subvariants, but there's no sign that it causes more serious illness in otherwise healthy people.

She says the COVID-19 vaccines expected this fall are a good match to combat the virus.

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