Welcome to
Ron’s COVID-19 Page
Who We Are
This site shares the results of an ongoing personal project to better understand why the pandemic developed in such a damaging way in Canada, what other jurisdictions have done to better protect their citizens from those impacts and what we can collectively do to reduce the possible carnage from futures wave caused by this rapidly-evolving virus. It neither represents nor receives funding from any other person or organization. The sole purpose is to provide the latest and most meaningful data and insights related to the pandemic and its impact on our society in a readily accessible format. You will find many meaningful charts and analyses which provide context for the statistics summarized in the above table by clicking on the Global, Canada, Ontario and Kingston menus. For more details, see the About page.
Weekly Pandemic Update
September 27 to October 3
This is my first update since that of September 12, the gap having been due to my being away on an extended Eastern Canada road trip. There were no big surprises during that period, the rate of new COVID infections having risen significantly following the end of the pandemic’s seasonal lows, but less strongly than in previous years.
Our weekly composite chart shows that the Canada-wide municipal wastewater COVID viral counts have climbed faster than expected from their historic summer lows, approaching those of last year at this time.
At 2.3% as of mid-September, the positivity rate from Ontario PCR COVID testing were already triple their summer lows, albeit still only a third of what they had been last year at the same time. COVID hospitalizations and ICU bed occupancy, always a lagging indicator, remain well below their equivalents from last year.
Public Health Canada’s update on currently-circulating COVID variants showed significant shifts compared to my last report. The relatively new RF.5 Omicron variant now accounts for 36% of all new Canadian COVID infections, giving it the largest single “market share”. It is the latest strain in the existing B.1.1.529 family, which also includes the currently-circulating PJ.2.1 strain and others of the previously-circulating JN.1 line. Thus far, none have shown any signs of causing more severe symptoms than others which have been circulating this past year.