COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise across Canada as a wave of autumn infections sweeps the population, according to recent data released(opens in a new tab) by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

The latest numbers are nothing to panic over, infectious diseases experts say, but they can't be ignored either, especially with so many hospitals in the country already operating at or near capacity.
"I don't think there's anything unexpected in the sense that … we're going to see a rise in COVID-19 in the community as the summer turned to fall, just as we've seen every year since COVID emerged," Dr. Isaac Bogoch, clinician investigator at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.