/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/QSWCZ2KRQFKC5NYGTQRMYLM6VU.jpg "Canada’s current COVID-19 surge could decline in coming weeks – health official")
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Baristas serve customers at a Second Cup coffee shop franchise in Toronto’s PATH, the world’s biggest underground shopping mall that runs under the city’s major downtown office buildings, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 28, 2021. Picture taken September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
OTTAWA, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Canada’s latest COVID-19 wave could decline in the coming weeks with increasing numbers of Canadians now vaccinated against the coronavirus, a top medical official said on Friday, citing longer-term forecasts.
Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, told reporters that the rate of transmission across Canada was now below 1, indicating the current outbreak had “dropped out of a growth pattern at the national level.”
One of the reasons for the drop is the increasing number of people who have been inoculated. As of Oct 4, almost 81% of Canadians above age 12 were fully vaccinated.
“The longer-range forecast suggests that, at current levels of transmission, the fourth wave could decline in the coming weeks,” said Tam.
Official data show 28,141 Canadians have died since the pandemic started last year.
Reporting by David Ljunggren
Editing by Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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