With Thanksgiving around the corner, health experts are advising Canadians to exercise caution as new variants of the COVID-19 virus swirl across the country. “This is a different Thanksgiving than the past few,” Colin Furness, infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, told Global News. Read more: COVID-19 symptoms are changing, warns B.C.
infectious disease expert Even as COVID-19 protections diminish in Canada, cases are on the rise and the risk of exposure to the virus is the “highest it’s been,” he said.
According to Furness, an uptick in new sub-variants like Omicron’s BQ.1.1 just as Canadians begin to live a “so-called return to normal” life with most restrictions lifted, “is actually helping the foe (COVID-19) be more successful.” “We have a greater risk this Thanksgiving,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to equip this virus to beat us and the virus is obliging,” he added. “We’re giving it the perfect conditions to evolve and it’s doing that.” And, with a “failing acute healthcare system,” those who get sick with the virus may not even have a hospital bed available for them should they need care. “When we think about Thanksgiving, getting together, affection, love and being thankful for what we have, it would be really tragic for (family members) to end up in the emergency room or being admitted to the hospital where there is no place for you,” said Furness.
In Canada, nursing job vacancies remain high, according to the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union, the largest nurses’ organization in the country.