The Canadian Institute for Health Information says COVID-19 continues to impact the health care system in Canada.

According to CIHI, between April of 2022 and March of 2023, hospitalizations due to COVID-19 increased by 19 per cent over the last year, while emergency department visits due to the virus dropped over the same time period.

Nicole Loreti, Program Lead of Clinical Administrative Databases at CIHI, says the data shows that the virus is still with us and affecting the health system.

She says there’s still an estimated total cost of $2.9 billion dollars, causing a significant burden on the system. She says they are continuing to monitor the data, with the next report set to release in February on the first half of 2023.