Since the Omicron variant was first introduced to Canada in late November last year, the total case count skyrocketed – but some experts believe the end is in sight.
The government of Canada’s health website currently states the total case count as 2,921,385, going up almost a million cases since Boxing Day, when it was 2,000,976. And with thousands of unreported rapid tests being used, the actual number of positive cases is likely much higher. Despite this, some believe COVID-19 is already transitioning from a pandemic to an endemic.
“COVID-19 will be a problem we’ll have to deal with annually, similar to the flu,” said Glen Armstrong, a professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Calgary.
“We have to learn to live with this for many generations, because that’s what it means for it to be endemic – it’s now just something that is always there,” he said.
A survey by Nature, a British scientific journal, shares the same opinion. The journal’s immunologists, infectious disease researchers, and virologists working on SARS-CoV-2 agree that they expect the coronavirus to become endemic, with some even saying it would be possible to eliminate the virus entirely from some parts of the world.
Armstrong also said that viruses, over time, tend to evolve to be in a less pathogenic state with their host – similar to the now-harmless bacteria living in our gut and skin.
“We’re already seeing it with Omicron,” he said. “It’s not causing a serious illness as some of the original variants, like Delta – so that evolutionary process is already happening.”
The good news, Armstrong believes, is that the pandemic has been a much-needed wake-up call for everybody.
“Since we’ve been able to successfully control past diseases with antibiotics and vaccines, we were lulled into a sense of complacency,” he said. “But the severity of COVID has made our healthcare system more robust – enabling us to better handle future problems.”
However, our hospitals are still being pushed to their limits. This week in Alberta, there are 1,191 hospitalizations due to infection – the highest since the pandemic began.
Dr. Donna Wilson, a professor of nursing at the University of Calgary, warns of indirect dangers implicated by COVID-19 on our healthcare.
“Our system has had to put a lot more emphasis on looking after people who are infected with COVID, which means that all of the surgeries, heart conditions, cancer conditions, lung conditions, and all the rest of that really got put on hold,” she said.
“This means we could have huge health problems in the future due to a delay in needed care.”
Wilson then expressed her concern for the effects of burnout and fatigue in the thousands of healthcare workers across the country.
“Just trying to survive the experience of looking after these dying people – the human toll is just phenomenal,” she said.
COVID-19 will be a problem we’ll have to deal with annually, similar to the flu. – Glen Armstrong
Alberta Health Services (AHS) says addressing staffing shortages and recruiting is a constant priority across the system all year round.
“The sheer exhaustion endured by these nurses are sometimes enough to make them quit,” said Wilson. “And without them, our health problem would become much worse.”
To remedy the problem, AHS said about 500 staff have indicated they will return to work under the new testing options, including the rapid antigen tests.
