Ontario Hospital Officials Say The Third Wave Of COVID-19 Is Now Here

According to provincial hospital officials, Ontario's third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has officially arrived.

The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) took to Twitter on Monday to warn Ontarians that the third wave is upon us and that variants of concern cases are "steeply rising."

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"[With] new VOC cases steeply rising & ICU [numbers] trending up (nearing 350 today), strong adherence to public health measures is urgently needed to prevent overwhelming hospitals," says OHA.

When asked about the statement, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen De Villa said that "it's still early to say, [but] certainly this is not the direction that we want to see the numbers go in."

In February, Narcity spoke to Dr. Colin Furness, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto, who predicted the oncoming third wave, as he says our actions were "a bit too little and a bit too late to prevent the contagious variants from taking hold."

Ontario's Chief Medical Officer Chimes In

On Monday, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams was asked if he was in agreement with the assertion that Ontario has hit its third wave.

He says it's too hard to tell whether this is a wave, or just a spike until it's over and that whether we are in a third wave or not is still "to be determined."

He did, however, express worry over the growing number of variant of concern cases in the province, stating that "[the variants] greater ease of [transmissibility] is of concern."