Welcome to
Ron’s COVID-19 Page
What’s new on this site
The COVID municipal wastewater PCR testing results for each province which are updated weekly on our Canada page have all been revised to accomodate a restructuring of the Canada Public Health Infobase from which we draw the data. Note as well that, while Canadian COVID death rates have long been underreported, whole provinces which together amount to 25% of Canada’s population have stopped reporting them. That implies that Canada is becoming a country whose official statistics will be viewed as increasingly unreliable on the world stage.
Who We Are
This site shares the results of an ongoing personal project to better understand why the pandemic has 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 carnage of the unnecessary third wave which is now upon us. 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
March 9 to 15
The official COVID-related data published this past week are generally quite positive, suggesting that this year’s seasonal low in infection rates may be less than last year’s.
The most recent Ontario COVID PCR test positivity rates are continuing their seasonal decline and have fallen slightly below the 2024 low point, which occurred later in March. Test rates serve as an early indicator. COVID hospitalization rates and ICU bed occupancy are also continuing to fall and remain almost identical to those of last year at this time.
The more independent Canadian COVID-19 Resource Canada summary also shows moderate week-to-week improvement in infection rates nationally, with Ontario’s remaining the highest amongst the provinces. Their most recent estimate remains one in 50 Ontarians currently infected and hence infectious.
The latest US Centers for Disease Control analysis of currently-circulating COVID variants in that country shows the new-dominant LP.8.1strain to be continuing its rapid rise, from 38% last week to 47% today. The previously-dominant XEC strain meanwhile fell from 31% to only 26%. Both are JN.1 derivatives. While LP.8.1 is almost by definition more infectious, none of the many JN.1 derivatives show variability in symptom severity, which is a very good thing.