Shops stopping people without masks as second wave feared

Area resident Willem Klumpenhouwer has posted word of people trying to enter Hollywood Gelato without virus masks Friday night. He says the owner “stood firm and turned away some yokels.” Similar incidents are occurring all over the country as sensible people try to prevent a second wave of coronavirus infection caused by careless under-40s. Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam had a sterner than usual warning to young Canadians to stop fuelling the spread of the novel coronavirus. She delivered that pre-weekend warning because of the worrying trend of rising infections among people aged 20 to 39. This age group accounted for the highest incidence rates for COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks.

Seven-day average rising again

Dr. Tam outlined how the daily national case count, based on a seven-day average, is rising again across the country after falling earlier this summer. She said the seven-day measure is the best way to assess the trend in the number of infections. She says it stood at a high of 1,800 per day in early May, then dipped to 273 in early July, but in the last seven days the average daily count rose to 487. The 20-to-39 age group accounted for 60 percent of those cases, and one-third of them had to be hospitalized, said Tam.