WINNIPEG —
Manitoba health officials have announced 10 more people have died of COVID-19, as cases, deaths and hospitalizations continue to spike in the province.
On Monday Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief provincial public health officer, announced the most recent deaths, which include:
a male in his 80s, a female in her 80s and a female in her 90s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the outbreak at Maples Long Term Care Home;
a male in his 90s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region and linked to the outbreak at Bethesda Place;
a male in his 90s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the outbreak at Victoria Hospital;
a male in his 80s from the Winnipeg health region and linked to the Seine River Retirement Home cluster;
a male in his 70s from the Winnipeg health region;
a male in his 80s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region and linked to the outbreak at Carman Memorial Hospital;
a male in his 90s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region and linked to the outbreak at Brooklyn Terrace; and
a male in his 70s from the Southern Health–Santé Sud health region and linked to the outbreak at Bethesda Regional Health Centre.
These most recent deaths bring the total death toll of COVID-19 in Manitoba to 172.
COVID-19 CASES SPAN MANITOBA
“We’re seeing double digits of death rates, hundreds of cases each day – we can’t go on in this manner,” Roussin said, as he reported 392 new cases of COVID-19 identified, which span every health region across the province.
The majority of these cases were identified in the Winnipeg region, which reported 255 cases as of Monday. The province said Winnipeg now has a test positivity rate of 12. 8 per cent.
The other cases reported on Monday include:
21 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region;
25 cases in the Northern health region;
19 cases in the Prairie Mountain Health region;
72 cases in the Southern Health-Santé Sud health region.
These cases bring Manitoba’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 11,339. The province’s five-day test-positivity rate is now at 13 per cent. Roussin said in the past three days, he has reported more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19.
“We can’t sustain this number of cases in our healthcare system. We need to bring these numbers down and we need to work on that starting now,” Roussin said. “Our hospitals are nearing capacity.”
As of Monday, the province said there are 234 people in hospital, including 42 people in intensive care.
‘DON’T LOOK FOR REASONS TO GO OUT’: ROUSSIN URGES MANITOBANS TO STAY HOME
The province reported 4,156 people have recovered from COVID-19 since March, with more than 7,000 cases being listed as active.
“I know many Manitobans are worried, many Manitobans are scared right now, but we do know what to do. We can act right now to keep bringing those numbers down,” Roussin said, once again urging Manitobans to stay home, socialize with only those in their households, and leave only for essential reasons.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)
“Don’t look for reasons to go out, look for reasons to stay home.”
Despite the calls for Manitobans to only socialize with people in their homes, Roussin said one Manitoban over the weekend had 85 contacts. He said public health will not be able to manage the pandemic if people continue to have this many contacts.
“85 contacts puts us all at risk,” he said. “We can’t accept that.”
He said people should keep a list of their close contacts to help with contact tracing.
ROUSSIN SAYS NURSES ARE FACING VERBAL ABUSE
Roussin said the contact tracers, who are mostly public health nurses, have been facing verbal abuse as they try to inform people of possible exposures to COVID-19.
“They are getting yelled at – sworn at,” Roussin said. “We can’t accept this behaviour. We know it is tough. If you are now notified you are a contact and have to self-isolate for 14 days – that is difficult, but it is certainly not the public health nurse’s fault.”
The province said 2,391 tests were completed on Sunday, which brings the total number of tests completed since early February to 312,238.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
