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
January 19 to 25
With one question mark, the most recent statistical data released over the past week constitutes further evidence that the moderate holiday spike in new COVID infection is receding after having proven less severe than those of previous years.
In this week’s composite chart, Ontario’s PCR COVID test positivity rate declined for the second consecutive week. New COVID-related hospitalizations have followed suit, as has ICU bed occupancy. The question mark is the latest analysis from the statisticians behind the more independent Canadian COVID-19 forecast, which predicts a higher severity in terms of new COVID infections that their report of last week. Specifically, their estimate of one in every 53 Ontarians currently being infected and therefore infections represents a significant worsening since their previous estimate. We will have to wait on next week’s data releases to get a better sense of whose estimate is the more accurate.
The most recent Public Health Agency of Canada analysis of currently circulating COVID variants, again shows relatively little change. While still dominant at 36% of all Canadian COVID infections, the XEC recombinant is now gradually losing “market share”, as is the second-place KP.3.1. While only 4% at moment, the newer XEK recombinant is the fastest-rising of the current pantheon. All are JN.1 derivatives, which means that the current booster shot should continue being reasonably effective.