as young people come out of lockdown, canada is seeing a spike in covid-19 cases

young people coming out of lockdown in summer and socializing in big groups, private parties and bars, are behind the recent spikes in covid cases across the country.ontario, which moved most regions to stage 3 of its reopening last friday — with more regions to open this friday — reported 203 new cases and one death from the virus on tuesday — it’s highest number recorded in several weeks. health minister christine elliott said 57 per cent of the cases came from people under the age of 39.the increase prompted premier doug ford to issue a strong rebuke to young people for violating public health measures and endangering their families, especially parents and grandparents.“i just asked people, just hold off on these parties,” he said. “i don’t know why everyone wants to party so badly, enough. we have to keep this in control.”and on monday, british columbia’s provincial health officer, dr. bonnie henry said that the province recorded 102 new cases of the virus since friday, 60 of which were linked to multiple events, gatherings at bars and private parties held in kelowna over canada day weekend. most of the new cases confirmed this weekend were people in their 20s and 30s, she said.the province had entered phase 3 of its reopening plan on june 24, which allowed non-essential travel, limited outdoor camping and events of up to 50 people. however, henry said that the higher number of cases over the last three days could mean a rapid rebound of infections, undoing the province’s months-long effort to successfully bend the curve.worsening the situation are people relaxing social-distancing measures. henry said that in the spring, most new covid-19 patients only had close contact with three or four people, but public health officials are now having to trace 20 or 30 contacts for every person with a confirmed case of the disease. “we are starting to see people who are testing positive in the last few days having a large number of contacts again,” she said.the province, she said, is reaching its tipping point — a point at which one new covid-19 case could lead to an exponential increase in transmissions. “we know the more people get ill the more chances even young people will have severe illness (and) will end up in hospital, and unfortunately some people will die,” henry said.british columbia isn’t alone. as other provinces move to ease restrictions, several are reporting upticks in covid-19 numbers in recent days, as more younger people venture out to bars, beaches and house parties.

data from british columbia, ontario, alberta, saskatchewan, quebec, manitoba, nova scotia, new brunswick and prince edward island show an increase in covid-19 infections in the 20-29 age groups.numbers from the public health agency of canada illustrate that during the second week of july, the largest proportion of new cases reported — 22 per cent of female cases and 28 per cent of male cases – were in the 20-29 age group.the younger age groups are now making up a higher percentage of overall positive cases, while older age groups are falling, the data show.deputy public health officer howard njoo told a briefing on tuesday that the success of efforts to combat the outbreak was fragile and could be undermined by people becoming complacent.the daily case count across canada is now around 460, compared with 300 earlier in the month.“provinces (are) … trying to reopen at i think a very prudent pace, slowly opening up bars and restaurant. but everyone recognizes we would expect to get clusters of cases,” njoo said.njoo said young adults now make up around 55 per cent of new cases, compared with around a third of cases in may.“that is concerning,” he said, blaming fatigue after months of lockdown and a feeling among the young they are invincible “and can get away with anything.”quebec, one of the early provinces to reopen in the pandemic, reported 180 new cases in the past 24 hours. several regional health officers have attributed the outbreak to community transmission arising out of bars, pools, restaurants and house parties. “there are people who are now sick, who don’t know it, and who will pass it on to others,” said dr. horacio arruda, quebec’s chief public health officer said.on monday, alberta reported 368 new cases of covid-19 from the weekend, bringing its active total to 1,109 cases — the province’s highest active count since may. prior to the weekend, the province recorded 120 new cases of the virus last thursday, marking its first triple-digit daily increase in two and a half months.dr. deena hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer, acknowledged that the uptick in covid-19 cases since the beginning of july has been concentrated in younger people. the current numbers are worrying, she admitted, but not enough to merit another shutdown.“i think this is a reflection of many people feeling that they’re tired of the restrictions. they don’t want to be held back anymore from interacting socially with their friends, from doing the things that they enjoy,” hinshaw said.saskatchewan and manitoba, which have reached phases 3 and 4 of their respective reopening plans, have also observed increases in covid-19 cases, mainly in regions tied to the hutterite colonies and other communities.last week, saskatchewan reported a total 120 new cases, with its highest case count, totalling 42 new cases, on thursday. health officials say the new cases are mostly concentrated in the province’s southwestern and west-central regions.manitoba reported 18 new cases over the weekend, 10 of which were linked to hutterite colonies, two to international travel, one to a transport driver and three were contacts of known cases, dr. brent roussin, the province’s chief provincial health officer said monday.newfoundland and labrador recorded its first case in weeks after a man in his 20s, from ontario, tested positive. while the province has reported few to no cases since july, photos of young people lined up at bars and restaurants two weeks ago have prompted officials to threaten business owners with hefty fines for violating public health guidelines.dr. david fisman, a infectious disease expert at the university of toronto said the spike in new covid-19 cases should be expected as reopening means increased contact between people. “the math is very straightforward, if we have large numbers of contacts, we’ll have large reproduction numbers,” he said. if the numbers continue to rise, then provincial leaders should take measures that target the demographics responsible for the  cases — in this case, younger people — or shut down certain types of venues, he said.“back in march, that’s what we were anticipating — dynamic distancing. we would have to turn distancing on and off and on and off until we get a vaccine or (the virus) attenuates and becomes less dangerous,” he said. which means, this won’t be the first time we see an uptick in the covid-19 cases.“the good thing is right now is there’s a lot of hospital capacity in the country, a lot of icu capacity,” he said.— with files from the canadian press