Over 1,000 cases of COVID-19 recovered in Nunavut this wave
Active case count was 337 on Thursday
Too little data is being released on the state of COVID-19 in Nunavut. (Image by PIR04D from Pixabay)
The number of Nunavummiut who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection during the Omicron wave of the virus surpassed 1,000 on Thursday, according to an update Premier P.J. Akeeagok on Twitter.
A total of 337 confirmed cases were still considered active.
The case count is trending downwards, with about 200 fewer cases reported on Thursday than three days prior, when it reached 540 on Feb. 7.
That record-breaking tally quickly dropped to the 300-range when some recoveries were added up.
With delays in recording cases and recoveries across the territory, limited testing and now, changes in contact tracing, the daily case counts published by the territorial government do not reflect how many people actually have COVID-19 in Nunavut, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Michael Patterson has said.
“With all the changes we are not capturing by any stretch of the imagination all of the cases of Nunavummiut catching COVID- 19 in the territory,” Patterson said on Tuesday.
In total, there have been 19 hospitalizations and one death due to COVID-19 since the Omicron wave of COVID-19 began in Nunavut in mid-December.
Here are Nunavut’s 337 cases by community:
- Arviat — 16
- Baker Lake — 20
- Cambridge Bay — 16
- Coral Harbour — 11
- Igloolik — 25
- Iqaluit — 133
- Kinngait — 11
- Kugluktuk — 2
- Kugaaruk — 1
- Naujaat — 2
- Pangnirtung — 2
- Qikiqtarjuaq — 3
- Rankin Inlet — 33
- Resolute Bay — 6
- Sanikiluaq — 12
- Sanirajak — 9
- Taloyoak — 35
Four presumptive cases detected in Resolute Bay on Tuesday were confirmed on Wednesday so that community’s case count rose to six on Thursday.
The case counts in Whale Cove, Gjoa Haven, Pond Inlet and Chesterfield Inlet are down to 0.
Kugaaruk is back on the list of communities with confirmed cases, with one reported on Thursday.
Patterson, Main, and Akeeagok will give another update on the COVID-19 situation in Nunavut on Feb. 15, which can be streamed on the legislative assembly’s website.
These numbers are at least easy to calculate. 1,000 recoveries to 1 fatality. Crudely speaking, your odds of succumbing to the virus in Nunavut have been 1/10 of 1%
Of course we know this is not entirely accurate because in all probability there have been many more than 1,000 recoveries. Which would drop the fatality rate even lower.
I look forward to hearing all the reasons these numbers are wrong. I would encourage everyone to do their own math and share their results. Let’s discuss.
ps: I should have said this refers specifically to the Omicron wave
Seems to have less death and hospitalization than the annual flu, and this is in a population with higher than average pre-existing conditions.
People keep saying things like that, which keeps revealing they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Responses to COVID-19 since early 2020 have drastically reduced the numbers of people with the flu: for the 2020-2021 flu season there were a grand total of 69 positive cases *in all of Canada* and no community transmission. So to find a normal flu year, we have to go back to 2018-2019.
In the 2018-2019 flu season, there were 48,818 positive cases of influenza. There were 3,657 hospitalizations, or 45 per 100,000 population. There were 224 flu-related deaths, or about 3 per 100,000 population.
So far, in Nunavut, the Omicron wave has resulted in a hospitalization rate of 47.5 per 100,000, and a death rate of about 2.5 per 100,000. Of course, at such low numbers, it only takes 1 or 2 to move things around a lot. So, Omicron has resulted in a higher hospitalization rate than the flu, and about the same mortality rate.
So what you seem to be saying is, this has about the same mortality rate as the flu…
What I am saying is that WITH PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES IN PLACE and with widespread vaccinations, that is true.
That is NOT the same thing as saying it’s no worse than the flu, which is normally not fought with similar health measures or vaccination numbers. People tend to forget that part.
Sorry but that is speculation on your part.
Unless you can isolate those variables by running a control group and an experimental group you can not be certain what effects those variables have had, if any.
Those are PHAC Fluwatch numbers, they don’t purport to be an exhaustive tally of all cases, hospitalizations or deaths. They only report the data received from participating hospitals/health care units. Not all hospitals participate.
What percentage of the national population is not captured? We don’t know, because that’s not what Fluwatch is trying to do.
So do you know this and don’t care that the way you’re using these numbers is misleading, or do you not know what you’re talking about?
I was using the numbers available. Which is more than I can say for the people who pull things out of nowhere like “COVID causes fewer problems than the flu”.
If the measures introduced for Covid caused the 2020-2021 flu season to have 69 positive cases in all of Canada when a “normal flu year” would have 48,818 positive cases of the flu, then what does that say about how many cases of Covid there would be without the measures?
.
Using the numbers above for the flu, if there’s been somewhere around 1300 confirmed cases of Omicron in Nunavut with the measures, that would extrapolate to 919,759 people without the measures. Essentially, everybody would have got it. That would translate to about 585 hospitalizations and 40 deaths.
.
This is also leaving out the fact that when comparing a normal flu year vs Covid, there is a significantly higher number of people that have been vaccinated against Covid than normally get vaccinated against the flu.
… I should have mentioned the hospitalization and death numbers I used were based on Nunavut’s population, not on 919,759 cases.
So how many have died in Nunavut of the flu? That’s right zero! It’s so stupid to compare Covid with the flu.
Covid is much more complex and we are still learning about it, long Covid that lasts months severely effecting your health, damage to lungs and other organs, loss of smell and taste, balance being effected. Many other things, it’s not like your common flu, please learn more about Covid and stop the knee jerk comments and the false information about Covid being like the flu.
You say there have been zero deaths due to the flu, and you say that is a fact. Can you please let us know where you got your data on that?
It’s not the flu, but it is becoming more like the flu all the time. Hopefully it will end up being just another seasonal “common cold” coronavirus. We can’t stop it, the vaccines won’t stop it, we can only slow it down and at great cost to society and the economy.
Yes, people who are at risk definitely need to be vaccinated and if you know any such people who aren’t vaccinated please direct your anger at them.
People who fear it should be accommodated within reason, but the show must go on. They can’t be allowed to control everyone else.
Long covid is poorly understood, but there’s no reason for irrational fear of something you can’t control. Everyone is going to encounter this virus in the coming years.
How many of the 1300 plus Nunavummiut have long term CVID?