The Public Health Service of Canada (PHAC) says a resurgence of COVID-19 appears to be underway, fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. At the same time, most restrictions on COVID have been lifted across the country, more adults are returning to work, and children, for the most part, no longer need to wear school masks. “As of March 31, the daily average number of cases has increased by 28 percent nationwide,” Canada’s public health chief Theresa Tam said in a briefing last week. It seems that everyone either knows someone who is sick or they are sick themselves. Two of the doctors who spoke to CBC News about this story were recently found positive. But with limited access to PCR testing across Canada, some sufferers wonder if they have COVID or the common cold or flu – and what to do if they have COVID-like symptoms but do not actually feel so well. We will answer some of these questions here.
CLOCKS Why Omicron cases are on the rise and how to reduce transmission:

Tam discusses the reasons for the resurgence of COVID-19 in parts of Canada

Canada’s Director of Public Health Theresa Tam says that whenever public health measures are relaxed, a resurgence of COVID-19 cases can be expected. Tam says she encourages people to keep wearing masks to keep the pandemic under control. 1:45

Is it COVID or just a cold?

It is impossible to know for sure if you have COVID-19 without a test, said Dr. Shazma Mithani, an emergency physician in Edmonton. “There is no specific symptom or lack of symptom that can say with certainty that it is COVID or not.” The current list of possible symptoms of Covid-19 in Canada is long – 14 in total. And PHAC warns that symptoms vary from person to person and that age can be a factor. Currently, some of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 include:

sore throat catarrh sneezing new or worsening cough fatigue shortness of breath or difficulty breathing temperature equal to or greater than 38 ° C

“Many people who have a COVID infection experience almost no or very mild symptoms – especially if they are young and healthy – compared to some people as they begin to reach 40, 50 and above, they seem to be much more symptomatic,” said Dr. Lisa Barrett, infectious disease physician and researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax. And a once-indicative sign has almost disappeared. “This loss of taste and smell, which was a warning sign, like, most likely, is COVID … which has evolved from the virus, where it is less obvious now,” Barrett said. What doctors say they see most with Omicron are gastrointestinal symptoms, especially diarrhea, but also vomiting and abdominal pain. However, the bottom line is that testing is the only way to know for sure if you have COVID-19.

If you have manageable symptoms, such as a mild cold, do you still need a COVID-19 test?

Doctors say yes. “The purpose of a rapid test is not to tell you that you are not infected,” Barrett said. “The purpose of a quick test at this point is to tell you, if you are positive, that you are very likely to have Omicron or COVID.” And knowing this is important for many reasons. “If you are a high-risk person, taking a test would make you eligible for antiviral therapy,” said Dr. Kashif Pirzada, an emergency physician in Toronto. It is recommended that anyone who is elderly, immunosuppressed, or has multiple medical conditions have at least one rapid antigen test, although PCR would be best. However, he said a positive rapid test “would put you in line to take these new antiviral drugs”, including Remdesivir or Paxlovid. A quick test is also recommended if you are young or otherwise healthy, for a number of reasons. A quick home test for COVID-19 shows a negative result. (David Horemans / CBC)
“In the event of a situation where someone may be unlucky enough to have long-term COVID, it is important to have this documentation that they had COVID-19,” Mithanis said. He said it was also important to know so that you could let anyone in close contact know that you have been exposed to the virus.

I’ve heard that quick tests do not work on Omicron, so what is the use?

It’s still not entirely clear why fast tests do not seem to select Omicron as effectively as previous variants. Barrett said it was too early to know if it was the variant itself that was more difficult to detect or if there was less viral load to detect because people with the disease had some level of immunity to the vaccine or previous infection. But there are ways to make the test more effective. First, try more often. “Get tested every 24 hours while you are symptomatic,” Mithani said. “At least for every day you are random, I would try every day if you have access to this number of quick tests. If not, then you can do it every one to two or one to three days. Just to try a little diet.” Second, go beyond your nose. “Tamponate both your neck and your nose to improve the sensitivity or accuracy of the test,” Mithani said. It is advisable to drain your throat first, around where your tonsils are and where the gingivitis is in the middle. “Hit it aggressively,” he said, “and then insert your two nostrils.” Pirzanda said that you can also put tampons on your cheek, in between making your neck and nose. Doctors say tamponade of the neck and cheek, along with the nose, can make rapid COVID-19 tests more effective. Here, a woman appears to have sunk in her throat in a coronavirus test in Beijing on Wednesday. (Andy Wong / The Associated Press)
That said, some quick tests have been found to perform better than others. And all the doctors agreed that just because the test is negative does not mean you do not have COVID. “Once you have cold-like symptoms, that’s a sign that you may have it,” Pirzada said. “The quick test, even if it is negative, do not take it as gospel, especially at this time.”

Does the color of the nasal secretions indicate whether it is more likely to be COVID?

No. Colored mucus — green or yellow, and sometimes foul-smelling — often results from a sinus infection, said Pirzada, which can be bacterial. But he said that clear or colored mucus will not tell you for sure if it is COVID. You have to test.

I do not know anyone with the flu – is it still around?

Influenza rates remain low for this time of year, according to PHAC’s FluWatch report. In fact, he says, there was “no indication of a Community outbreak of influenza” during the entire 2021-2022 season. Despite similar numbers of lab tests for the flu, test-positive rates in Canada are “extremely low” at 0.13 percent, compared with an average of 23 percent of positive tests over the same period in the previous six pre-pandemics. periods. This flu season (which began on August 29, 2021) has reported just 551 flu detections, compared to an average of 38,193 so far in the previous six flu seasons before the pandemic. Doctors provide flu vaccines to patients in their Vancouver Underground Park in October 2020. Influenza rates were extremely low across Canada for the 2021-22 season. (Ben Nelms / CBC)
Mithani said doctors were seeing flu cases at Edmonton hospitals and that anyone at high risk with symptoms and COVID-19-negative tests would be tested for the flu. The same thing happens in other provinces. Pirzada said anyone at high risk in Ontario would also be tested for the flu if the hospital’s COVID PCR test is negative. “So we’re still trying it, it just does not come back positive very often,” Pirzada said. “Some strains of the flu have actually disappeared since the pandemic began.” Young children presented to the hospital with symptoms similar to COVID will also be tested for the flu and other respiratory illnesses, including RSV.

If people catch a cold and watch out, why are they still catching a cold or the flu?

While COVID-19 is mainly airborne, colds and flu are more prevalent on the surface, so Pirzada said it is possible for people to catch them this way. The other, he said, are the children. “Children transmit these viruses to each other with appetite and bring them home. And then, if you have children, you transmit them to other people in your workplace.” The best way to avoid colds and flu, in addition to continuing to wear a mask, is the ancient advice to wash your hands and not touch your face. Children, such as those we see playing together at Dream Magic Nursery in Val-d’Or, Quebec, are a major source of the spread of colds and other viruses. (CBC / Radio Canada)

What is the biggest misunderstanding about COVID-19 right now?

“The most dangerous thing is that living with COVID means pretending to be close,” Barrett said.
“If you are someone who wants to live with COVID, you have to forget about it and just do what you did before COVID – the same number of interactions, the same type of interaction without mask, without test, without isolation. “This is a dangerous misunderstanding.” Pirzada said it was also important to remember that sticking COVID does not mean you will not stick it again. “Even if you get sick now … COVID immunity is very low, so you could get sick in the next wave in two or three months.” He said there should be a move towards policies that reduce the amount of virus circulating, “such as good ventilation, indoor coverage when there are big waves like this and fast tests”.
CLOCKS Why does this doctor say that masks are still important:

Mask orders should be extended in Quebec, the doctor says

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