Half of Canadians with COVID-19 now recovered; Dr. Tam

This morning, Health Canada reports 78,500 Canadians tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

Over the weekend, the agency’s head said nearly half of all cases in the country are now recovered, that’s just under 40,000 Canadians now virus-free. Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada has now tested nearly 1.4-million people for COVID-19 with about five percent coming back positive, and it is currently at a daily testing average of 28,000.

Tam said that Canada is not out of the woods yet, no country is, so this will be a summer of more restrained movements and virtual celebrations.

Canada’s top doctor was asked to comment on U.S. President Trump’s announcement that he is taking Hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure for COVID-19. Dr. Theresa Tam said she knows that everyone is anxious to find a viable treatment for the virus, but trials are still underway and there are no results yet.

She says a lot of these studies are very preliminary with different treatments and the results have been mixed. Tam says some early evidence from studies outside of Canada suggests that hydroxychloroquine might be effective in reducing some viral loads, but she still recommends that if it is being used it should be part of a clinical trial.

Tam says in the past weeks, a trial for the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized children was approved by Health Canada. She says the bottom line is that this medication must first be preserved for its indicated medical treatment like lupus or malaria.