Top Ontario Ministry of Health officials at Queen's Park reported Thursday that the COVID-19 case rate and hospitalizations across Ontario are gradually dropping.
"It's encouraging, but slow," said Dr. David Williams, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health during a mid-afternoon briefing.
He was joined by Dr. Aladsteinn Brown, the Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
"We're doing better now than we were two weeks ago," said Brown. "Cases are down. Hospitalizations are down. And we're moving less. Mobility is down," said Brown. He acknowledged there was "an uptick" in COVID cases on Thursday that was disappointing.
"I know this reflects sacrifices and many hard choices about seeing friends, about seeing loved ones, about where you work. It is starting to work against COVID-19," Brown continued.
"But we're nowhere in the clear yet," Brown quickly added. "Cases are down in our long-term care homes, but the deaths will continue to mount for a long time."
Brown said it was critical to continue taking whatever steps are needed to reduce those deaths. He said this is why the vaccination program is especially urgent for long-term care homes and for other vulnerable populations in the province.
In that respect, Brown said there is another significant factor to worry about.
"Perhaps most worrisome is the new variant of concern, the new mutated SARS-CoV-2 virus is spreading in the community and will likely be the new dominant version of the virus in March," said Brown.
He said science is still just learning about the B.1.1.7 variant and how it is making people sick. He said the variant which is from the United Kingdom, gives provincial officials less room to relax and less room for error. He said everyone is watching it carefully and with an eye on how well current vaccines and precautions work against the variant.
Brown said the prevailing attitude is that vaccines and precautions will keep the variant under control, even though it is known to be far more contagious than the conventional coronavirus, even though the transmissibility of the UK variant is 30 per cent higher than regular COVID-19. Ontario health officials are also watching for the South Africa variant and the Brazil variant, although those are not believed to have arrived in Ontario.
Brown didn't mince words. He read several sentences from a UK medical report that concluded the B.1.1.7 is more lethal and has also resulted in overcrowding in intensive care units in British hospitals.
He said the medical community is closely watching Denmark, which is working to take control of the new variant, and which Brown said is about two-weeks ahead of Canada in dealing with it.
Brown said it was important to know that the same vaccines and same precautions being used on non-variant coronavirus is regarded just as effective as dealing with the new variants.
"As the disease continues to spread and becomes more and more common, new variants will emerge and will be able to out-compete the current variant," said Brown.
He said masking, social distancing, avoiding crowded places and crowded spaces, and hand washing discipline will be more important than ever.
