Once again, the past week has seen few significant changes to recently-reported COVID infection trends. As you can see from the composite chart, Canada-wide wastewater viral testing results have shown a modest upward trend in new COVID infections since the mid-March seasonal low, but the most recent number is down from the previous week. Ontario PCR testing positivity results show a very modest, continuing rise over that same period, while Ontario COVID hospitalization and ICU bed have remained at their seasonal lows, which are less than half of last year’s comparable numbers.
The more independent statisticians at COVID-19 Resources Canada appears to be updating their severity estimates on a monthly basis, so have not changed their most recent estimate of one in every 118 Ontarians being currently infected and therefore infectious.
With respect to the Canadian “market shares” of the most prevalent of the currently-circulating COVID variants, Public Health Canada now updates those statistics on a bi-weekly basis. Therefore, those stats are unchanged from last week, with the still-notionally-dominant NB.1.8.1 in decline, as of July 13 representing only 29% of new Canadian infections, and actual dominance by the two new and very closely related recombinant XFG and XFG.3 strains which are almost equal at 28% each. The comparable US Centers for Disease Control statistics are even more out of date, having been last updated on June 21st.