New data from the Public Health Agency of Canada indicates that coronavirus infections may slowly start to rise again in Canada.

The agency states on its website that there are signs of continued fluctuations in some indicators of coronavirus activity after a long period of gradual decline, and that this may be an early sign of increases, although overall virus activity remains low to moderate across the provinces and territories.

Immunologist Don Bodish from McMaster University clarified that the XBB family, which is a branch of Omicron, is currently dominant in Canada.

This family includes the subvariant EG.5, which is expected to start taking over in the coming weeks.

Bodish added that EG.5 appears to be more transmissible than previous subvariants, but there is no sign that it causes more severe illness in healthy individuals, noting that the expected coronavirus vaccines this fall are a good match to combat the virus.