Once again, there has been very little change in what remains of the official Canadian COVID-related statistics released this past week. The quality and currency of reporting by our governments is now sufficiently poor that, if the expected back-to-school increase in new infections has occurred, it is unlikely to manifest in the statistics for another week. 

Turning to the graphs in our composite chart, the reliability of official Canadian viral counts from municipal wastewater has been vastly undercut by the Ford government’s decision to terminate that data collection in our most populace province. Ontario PCR test positivity rates and COVID hospitalization/ICU rates are continuing to rise at a moderate pace, though it is of concern that the positivity rate is already threatening to approach its 2023 peak. 

The most recent estimate by the independent COVID-19 Resources Canada statisticians of the number of Ontarians currently infected, one in 26, has not been updated since last week. 

Turning to viral market shares, today’s estimate by the US Centers for Disease control highlights the continuing dominance for KP.3.1.1 Omicron strain, which now accounts for 53% of all new US infections. It is the only one of the nine most common variants whose market share is currently rising. Overall, the KP family accounts for 88% of new cases.