Thank you for the question.
Mr. Chair, this is quite a complicated question. Of course, maintaining surveillance as well as keeping an eye on all the evolving international data on omicron is really important.
First, we have laboratory networks, including genomics networks, connected to the international community that are on a constant lookout for any new variants of concern. They're also conducting domestic surveillance with the collaboration of the provinces and territories to look at not just cases but hospitalizations and ICU admissions as well as outbreaks in high-risk settings such as long-term care facilities. Monitoring vaccine effectiveness over time is really important as you've just seen. With the advance of treatments you need to also monitor for any resistance to some of the drugs that are being provided.
We know, for example, that some of the monoclonal antibodies were not working for this omicron virus. There are many streams of surveillance, data and modelling.
One of the key innovations during this pandemic is waste water surveillance, which is another indicator we're using to track where the omicron wave is going and when it might subside. All of these measures are ongoing as is modelling. Modelling projections we have been providing on a regular basis, the last of which was last Friday.
We have to be very careful with the projections. We think the omicron wave might spike very quickly and potentially come down fairly quickly as it has done in other countries but we have to be very careful about that. Right now we're seeing a little bit of plateauing in the cases. I advise that we wait until at least the end of this week to have another snapshot of what's going on. Given the testing limitations at the moment, we need to look at all of these indicators.
I look at the current context as the pandemic period, which is that we are still in crisis and our health care system cannot cope, moving to an interim transitional period towards a state of endemicity. This means I do not believe that this virus is going away from the world. Every country has it, so we need to adapt our response going forward. However, the endemic state is not yet in effect. The omicron wave may push us towards that state—one step into that future state. We have to evaluate the post-omicron wave using things such as sero surveys, whereby you look at the proportion of the population that might have immunity.