Key Points

In Week 38 (September 19–25, 2022), emergency department visits increased among children under 2 years of age (+11%, or 2,259 visits) and remained stable in other age groups.

Hospitalizations following visits were slightly higher among children under 2 years of age (+5%, or 136 more hospitalizations) and those aged 75 and older (+5%, or 1,131 more hospitalizations), and remained stable or declined in other age groups. The main increase in emergency department visits is due to bronchiolitis among children under 2 years of age, occurring very early in the season (+54%, or +412 visits in Week 38; +85%, or +345 visits already in Week 37). Of note is an increase of 123 hospitalizations following a visit for bronchiolitis compared to Week 37, which therefore accounts for 90% of the increase in hospitalizations in this age group. There is also an increase in visits for ENT infections among children under 15 (+28%, or +3,172 visits), more pronounced among children under 2 (+34%), as well as, again among this group, an increase in visits for cough (+50%, or +100 visits) and conjunctivitis (+36%, or +40 visits). The increase in visits for asthma now applies only to those aged 15–74 (+8%, or +92 visits). Finally, there was an increase in visits for dyspnea, respiratory failure (+9%, or +110 visits), and pneumonia (+7%, or +95 visits) among those aged 75 and older.

Visits for suspected COVID-19 are on the rise: 2,820 visits across all age groups (vs. 2,220 visits in Week 37, or +27%), representing 0.9% of total activity (vs. 0.7% in Week 37) and 37% of hospitalizations (vs. 34% in Week 37). This increase is observed only among adults (+24% in visits among those aged 15–74 and +50% among those aged 75 and older), with visits remaining stable among children. This increase is observed in all metropolitan regions.

Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 873,712 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.