COVID-19 cases down across the Americas, but Canadian numbers trending up

COVID-19 cases and deaths are declining in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, with infections last week dropping2.3 per centand deaths falling 15.2 per centfrom the prior week but in Canada, the number of people in hospital due to the virusis on the rise.

The broad downward trend in the Americas comes even as cases have scaled up in North America with an 11.2 per centincrease last week, the organization said, noting that in Canada, hospitalizations rose by more than 20 per centas the proportion of Omicron BA.2 cases grew.

In Ontario, 1,662 people were in hospital with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, up nearly 12 per cent from the previous day.

With access to PCR testing restricted, the scientific director of Ontario's panel of COVID-19 advisers has said wastewater surveillance suggests the province is seeing between 100,000 and 120,000 new cases each day.

Wastewater readings in Alberta are also trending up, indicating new COVID-19 infections are rising asthe Omicron subvariant BA.2 becomesthe dominant strain of the disease in the province, while Newfoundland and Labrador reported its largest increase in thenumber of deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday.

According to the most recent data from the Public Health Agency of Canada, all of the key indicators are trending upwards.

The number of new cases reported from April 3 to 9 was up 13 per cent, while the number of deaths reported in the same period rose 24 per cent.

With just over 50,000 tests performed across Canada during the same week, the test positivity rate was18.9 per cent.

Caribbean countries also see a surge

As borders have reopened and tourism has ramped up, cases have also surged in some Caribbean countries and territories, with Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Saint Martin recordingthe largest relative increases.

"Nonetheless, on a broad scale, cases and deaths are declining in the Americas," PAHO's director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, said ata press briefing.

She reinforced the need to consolidatehigh vaccination rates in the Americasand celebrated that 14 countries have already reached the World Health Organization's goal of fully immunizing 70 per cent of their populations by June 30.

"The decoupling of death rates and new infections is proof that vaccines are working well to protect people from hospitalization and death due to COVID-19," Etienne said.

On Monday, a U.S. federal judge in Florida struck down the country's mask mandate on public transit.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recently extended themandate, which was set to expire on Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the subvariant, which is now responsible for the vast majority of U.S. cases. The court ruling putthat decision on hold.

After a winter surge fuelled by the Omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months that led most states and cities to drop mask mandates.

But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in hospitalizations in recent weeks.