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 Some of those areas were spared in earlier waves of the pandemic and
are now forced to contend with a widely spreading virulent strain of
the coronavirus with fewer options at their disposal to deal with
the surge.
Canada has high overall vaccination rates but pockets of hesitancy
allow the virus to spread.
In Ontario, Canada's most-populous province, the Sudbury health
region about 250 miles (400 km) north of Toronto has tightened
restrictions. Officials have brought back capacity limits in public
spaces, requiring residents to mask and provide proof of
vaccination. Its COVID-19 recent case rate, at 164.7 per 100,000 as
of Monday, is by far the highest in the province.
It has also seen positivity rates, the percentage of people tested
for COVID-19 who test positive, spike to 4.43% as of Oct. 24. The
provincial average that week was 1.56%.
"Less dense, less urban areas were relatively spared in this
pandemic but ... I think we're starting to see the non-urban wave of
COVID starting," said Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician
at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, Ontario.
Greater Sudbury has more than 160,000 people but less hospital
capacity than the Toronto area.
"What's particularly worrisome is the number of cases and the rapid
rise of cases combined with the fact that we’re seeing cases kind of
all over," including about a quarter with no identified source, said
Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury
and Districts.
On Wednesday, Ontario paused plans to raise capacity limits at sites
such as sex clubs "out of an abundance of caution."
Sutcliffe said the increased transmission in her region could be
linked to both an easing of restrictions and widespread COVID-19
fatigue: "We're all tired of the pandemic and tired of having to
take precautions."
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 PANDEMIC FATIGUE
It is a fatigue felt elsewhere.
Yukon declared a state of emergency this week after announcing 80
COVID-19 cases in three days, bringing the total active cases to 169
in the territory of 43,000 people. About 22.1% of Yukon's population
is indigenous, compared with the national average of about 5%.
In Saskatchewan, the province's far northwest region, which is home
to multiple First Nations communities, had the highest COVID-19
infection rates this week. It also had the lowest vaccination rate
as a percentage of the total population, government data showed.
In Alberta, the province's relatively rural northern region that
includes the oil sands hub of Fort McMurray had the highest
hospitalization rate and the highest case rate as of early November.
This past summer, the Delta variant ran through crowded
oil sands housing and a young population that did not see itself at
risk of COVID-19, said Fort McMurray family doctor Raman Kumar.
"There's more a sense of rugged individualism where people don't
necessarily rely as much on the government."
Now, he said, he and his colleagues are tackling the "Three Cs" of
vaccine hesitancy: quashing complacency and conspiracies and
maximizing convenience.
"If someone comes in for a prescription refill, it's always a really
good opportunity to mention to someone: 'Hey, did you get your
vaccine?'"
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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