Although there is an increase in COVID-19 cases, Health Minister Jason Copping remains hopeful about the outcome of the most recent rise in cases.
“There are increases in virus circulation and hospital admissions but they are smaller and moving more slowly than we saw in the initial Omicron wave,” said Copping.
As of April 18th, there are 1,126 people in hospital and 43 people in intensive care. In total there have been 4,190 deaths caused by COVID-19. The average positivity rate of PCR tests is 29.6 per cent.
Copping noted that water levels indicate a higher than normal rate of COVID in certain areas.
“Wastewater levels are high in many locations but they mostly remain below the previously levels we saw in BA1 peak,” he added.
At this time, the central zone’s wastewater levels have not seen a significant increase based on the most recent data.
Copping was pleased to report that more surgeries continue to happen in the province.
“The system continues to complete near normal volumes of surgery. The waiting list continues to come down gradually. It’s currently about 7,200 compared to 76,600 at the beginning of March and 68,000 before the pandemic.
He noted that an announcement about increasing the volume of surgeries being done will be happening in the next few days.