Close X
Sunday, November 10, 2024
ADVT 
National

Flu season officially in Canada

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 01 Dec, 2023 02:15 PM
  • Flu season officially in Canada

The Public Health Agency of Canada says flu season is officially underway in this country. 

The rate of tests that were positive for flu stayed above the agency's threshold of five per cent for two consecutive weeks.  

As of Nov. 25, 7.5 per cent of people tested for influenza across Canada were positive. 

Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital infectious disease specialist Dr. Allison McGeer says the number of cases is climbing and there will be a lot of flu circulating in a few weeks.  

McGeer says that means now is a good time to get the flu shot, since it takes about two weeks to prime people's immune systems.   

She says the dominant strain now will be influenza A type H1N1, which is a good match for the current vaccine.  

Not all provinces and territories are reporting a five per cent positivity rate yet. For example, Public Health Ontario's latest flu surveillance report said the rate was 2.8 per cent as of Nov. 25 in that province. 

But Ontario and other provinces will soon catch up and those rates will increase, McGeer said in an interview on Friday.  

"The flu season starting now tells you that there's going to be a lot of flu at the end of December and the beginning of January," she said. 

"That's when you want to be out with your friends and doing a bunch of things and, you know, flu is capable of making that time quite miserable."

Many adults have some level of resistance to H1N1 flu strains, so it "tends to cause a lot of disease in kids, especially unvaccinated kids," McGeer said.

She added that "emergency departments and pediatrics ... take more of the pressure" during H1N1-dominant flu seasons.

Although McGeer said it's important for people to get their flu vaccines, she's even more concerned about the levels of COVID-19 that are circulating this year. 

Friday's surveillance report from Public Health Ontario showed a test positivity rate of 20 per cent for COVID-19 in that province. 

In addition to test positivity, wastewater surveillance and hospitalizations show climbing COVID-19 cases in Canada, McGeer said. 

"Just because we've stopped talking about people being hospitalized with COVID does not mean that people aren't being hospitalized with COVID," she said. 

"At the rate we're going, there will be more people hospitalized with COVID and more people dying from COVID this year than last year," McGeer said, noting that a low uptake of the new COVID XBB-variant vaccine is worrisome. 

MORE National ARTICLES

Driver shot multiple times: NWPD

Driver shot multiple times: NWPD
The New Westminster Police Department say they are looking into a report from a driver who says another driver shot his vehicle multiple times Wednesday afternoon. Police say a man reported that the driver of a black, two door Infiniti vehicle shouted at him before pointing a gun and shooting numerous times, resulting in a broken passenger side window.

Driver shot multiple times: NWPD

Parks Canada says whirling disease could decimate fish, respect B.C. closures

Parks Canada says whirling disease could decimate fish, respect B.C. closures
Parks Canada officials say they're closely watching lakes and rivers in Kootenay and Yoho national parks for a parasite that could "decimate" as much as 90 per cent of young trout and salmon. The first suspected case of the disease in British Columbia was found in September in Emerald Lake, in Yoho National Park, prompting the closure of the lake and other nearby waterways. 

Parks Canada says whirling disease could decimate fish, respect B.C. closures

Hundreds arrested for shoplifting in latest Vancouver police blitz

Hundreds arrested for shoplifting in latest Vancouver police blitz
A police crackdown on violent and chronic shoplifters in Vancouver has ended in 258 arrests and the recovery of almost $57,000 in stolen goods.  Vancouver police say the arrests were made during a two-week operation in September, which was co-ordinated with other Lower Mainland police departments, resulting in another 82 arrests in Delta, Langley, Richmond and Burnaby. 

Hundreds arrested for shoplifting in latest Vancouver police blitz

U.S. man lost at sea is rescued by Canadian crew west of Vancouver Island

U.S. man lost at sea is rescued by Canadian crew west of Vancouver Island
Sharp-eyed mariners on a Canadian vessel have rescued a U.S. man, one day after the United States Coast Guard ended its search for a commercial fishing boat from Washington state with two people aboard. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier says crew aboard the Canadian fish boat Ocean Sunset spotted a life-raft drifting in open ocean far west of Vancouver Island on Thursday.  

U.S. man lost at sea is rescued by Canadian crew west of Vancouver Island

At United Nations, Canada to speak about humanitarian pauses in Israel-Hamas war

At United Nations, Canada to speak about humanitarian pauses in Israel-Hamas war
Canada's ambassador to the United Nations is expected to speak later today about a UN effort to establish a temporary pause in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.  Bob Rae will take the podium on Day 2 of a special emergency session of the UN General Assembly as delegates debate a draft resolution calling for a pause in hostilities. 

At United Nations, Canada to speak about humanitarian pauses in Israel-Hamas war

Canada Border Services Agency alerts guards to look out for wanted Maine gunman

Canada Border Services Agency alerts guards to look out for wanted Maine gunman
The Canada Border Services Agency issued Thursday an "armed and dangerous" alert to officers stationed along the Canada-U.S. border, warning them to be on the lookout for the man suspected of fatally shooting 18 people in southern Maine. The shootings were reported Wednesday night in Lewiston, about 260 kilometres southwest of the New Brunswick border.

Canada Border Services Agency alerts guards to look out for wanted Maine gunman