{"id":156352,"date":"2025-09-20T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T04:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/156352\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T04:45:09","slug":"covid-19-in-canada-uptick-in-positive-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/156352\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 in Canada: Uptick in positive tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Canada is seeing an uptick in positive COVID-19 tests, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/health-infobase.canada.ca\/respiratory-virus-surveillance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/health-infobase.canada.ca\/respiratory-virus-surveillance\/\">report <\/a>from the Canadian government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">During the week of Sept. 7, there was a 9.6 per cent increase in positive tests week-over-week, according to data just released in the Canadian respiratory virus surveillance report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The report collects data across Canada on respiratory viruses like influenza (flu), COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Positive tests for the flu and RSV \u201cremain at interseasonal levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Though the number of weekly respiratory viral outbreaks remained steady, 99 per cent of reported outbreaks in recent weeks have been linked to COVID-19. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases <a href=\"https:\/\/nccid.ca\/project-stream\/emerging-infectious-diseases-and-outbreaks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nccid.ca\/project-stream\/emerging-infectious-diseases-and-outbreaks\/\">defines an outbreak<\/a> as \u201cthe number of disease cases beyond what would normally be expected for a community, geographical area or season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">CTV News\u2019 medical expert Dr. Marla Shapiro says this is the time when we see a general uptick in cases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cCOVID really has become endemic, it\u2019s part of the fall respiratory viruses that we see. We see it pretty much circulating all year round, but then it takes a lull in the summer,\u201d she said in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">She adds that it\u2019s possible that the numbers are underestimated because \u201cnobody is doing home testing anymore,\u201d and people aren\u2019t as sick as they were in previous years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to the report, B.C., Manitoba, Quebec, N.L. and P.E.I. are among the provinces with the highest cases of positive COVID-19 tests<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Shapiro says based on the lessons learned in the past, vaccines could help combat this virus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This month, Quebec and Alberta announced that COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be covered by the province, ending free vaccinations for the virus. Only eligible groups, including some individuals over 65 and at-risk people, will benefit from subsidizes vaccines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">COVID-19 vaccines are available free of charge in the rest of Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In August, Health Canada approved an <a href=\"https:\/\/static.modernatx.com\/press-releases\/Spikevax%20LP.8.1%20Press%20Release_08.22.2025%20FINAL.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/static.modernatx.com\/press-releases\/Spikevax%20LP.8.1%20Press%20Release_08.22.2025%20FINAL.pdf\">updated Moderna vaccine<\/a> made in Canada, which targets the SARS-CoV-2 LP.8.1 variant. It\u2019s set to roll out this fall.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada is seeing an uptick in positive COVID-19 tests, according to a report from the Canadian government. During&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[712,49,48,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-156352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}