but a steeper peak came jan. 30 with 166 deaths recorded, our world in data indicates.
yet 81 per cent of canadians five and older are fully vaccinated, 37 per cent have had three doses and the rates are higher in the age groups most vulnerable to the virus.
to understand that seeming anomaly, one should look first at the sheer numbers of people testing positive during this wave, said chagla. cases rose to almost 60,000 a day recently, more than five times the highest volume during the previous surges.
and with provinces telling the mildly ill not to use overwhelmed pcr-testing programs, the real numbers are believed to be even higher.
analysis by ontario’s covid science advisory table of virus found in wastewater estimated that 1.5 to four million residents had been infected just since the beginning of december. that’s three to nine times the 422,000 pcr-confirmed cases ontario officially recorded in that same period.
even though omicron is somewhat milder than previous variants, the far-wider spread this round means covid would have killed several-fold more people without vaccination, said chagla.
in the 60 days leading up to jan. 12, including the period when omicron took hold, the unvaccinated in the most vulnerable 80-plus group were 14 times more likely to die from covid than their fully vaccinated counterparts, while unvaccinated 70-to-79 year olds died at 47 times the rate of vaccinated people in their 70s, the agency said.