As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the province, some cities have already stated that the second wave in Ontario is here. Public Health officials in Waterloo, London, and Ottawa have said that their cities are in this new wave. However, other spots are saying that they are not quite there yet.
Amidst rising case numbers, changing regulations, and an unprecedented recent demand at testing centres, some public health officials have signalled concern for rising COVID-19 numbers.
"This is the second wave and we are seeing substantial spread in the community," said Middlesex-London Health Unit Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie via CTV.
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Assessment centres continue to experience high demands for testing. They are asking for patience as they work to me… https://t.co/wh66Ctq4Cg— Region of Waterloo Public Health (@Region of Waterloo Public Health)1600788780.0
Testing centres in London have been overwhelmed ever since an outbreak was declared at Western University.
But London isn't the only place dealing with a surge in COVID-19 issues.
Waterloo's medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang made a similar statement in a Tuesday update.
"We have started a new wave of COVID-19 in our community," she said via CBC.
Regarding "the second wave" in Ottawa. This figure shows that, after the "first wave", we had a peak in July and n… https://t.co/Oep6dIBuas— Dr. Vera Etches (@Dr. Vera Etches)1600458374.0
Ottawa's top doctor Vera Etches also confirmed that the city has already been hit by more cases.
When asked if the second wave had arrived, she responded, "yes".
However, not everyone is ready to officially declare it yet.
According to Brampton's medical officer of health Dr. Lawrence Loh, the second wave hasn't arrived yet because contact tracing has been successful so far.
“We’re not in a second wave yet because we can still trace most of these cases back to a known exposure or source," he said in a press conference.
"However, I continue to watch our hospital capacity and death rates carefully for any spike that may come in the next few weeks," he confirmed.
Doug Ford has already made a plan to fight COVID-19 this fall.
They are ramping up testing availability after seeing overwhelming crowds at assessment centres across the province over the past few weeks.
The province is also hoping to get saliva testing to more people, but are waiting on approval from the federal government, according to Ford.
