Continued risks of COVID-19

Amidst the evolving hazard landscape, COVID-19 remains an ongoing threat. Wastewater data and academic modelling continue to show substantial daily infection rates, often exceeding rates earlier in the pandemic.^{Footnote 24} Illness surges occur throughout the year,^{Footnote 25} and despite reduced testing and tracking, COVID-19 has remained amongst Canada’s top official causes of death.^{Footnote 26} (Excess deaths since 2020 suggest a far higher unofficial toll.)^{Footnote 27}

With the end of emergency declarations and many mandatory public health measures, some people now assume that COVID-19 no longer poses a risk. Yet the data is clear, as is messaging from the World Health Organization (WHO), which has continued to emphasize that “we're still in a pandemic,”^{Footnote 29} despite choosing to end COVID-19’s designation as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.^{Footnote 30}

“The worst thing any country could do now is to use [the end of our emergency declaration] as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that COVID-19 is nothing to worry about. . . . If we all go back to how things were before COVID-19, we will have failed to learn our lessons, and we will have failed future generations.”

• Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General^{Footnote 31}

Contributing to this lack of awareness is the fact that people can transmit COVID-19 without obvious symptoms.^{Footnote 32} In 2022, Statistics Canada found that “35% of people who had a current or recent infection indicated that they had never tested positive or suspected having the virus [SARS-CoV-2].”^{Footnote 33} Meanwhile, modelling indicates 59% of COVID-19 transmission is asymptomatic.^{Footnote 34}

Asymptomatic transmission is common for many communicable diseases,^{Footnote 35} causing health & safety impacts that ripple out beyond a single workplace or event. A 2020 conference in Boston was estimated to cause a chain of over 300,000 COVID infections throughout the United States.^{Footnote 36} More recently, some large-scale concerts have reportedly resulted in thousands of attendee infections,^{Footnote 37} while other events had to be cancelled last-minute due to health issues.^{Footnote 38} One person’s “mild” infection may lead to someone else’s severe one, or to long-term health impacts.^{Footnote 39}