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74 new cases of COVID-19 as Ottawa moves into the Red-Control zone

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OTTAWA —
Ottawa Public Health reported 74 new cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on day one in the Red-Control zone, while Ottawa`s weekly incidence rate increased to 50 cases per 100,000 people.

One new death linked to the virus was announced on Friday.

Forty-four of the 74 new cases on Friday involved residents under the age of 30.

Since the first case of COVID-19 in Ottawa on March 11, 2020, there have been 15,914 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 451 deaths.

The 74 new cases on Friday follows 83 new cases on Thursday.

Ottawa’s COVID-19 incidence rate increased to 50 cases per 100,000 on Friday from 49.1 cases on Thursday. The positivity rate was 2.9 per cent for the period of March 12 to 18, up from 2.7 per cent.

Ontario moved Ottawa into the Red-Control level of Ontario’s COVID-19 reopening framework on Friday due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. The move the red zone includes new restrictions on social gatherings, bars, restaurants, fitness centres and sports teams.

Across Ontario, there are 1,745 new cases of COVID-19. Health officials reported 478 new cases in Toronto, 344 in Peel Region and 174 in York Region.

OTTAWA’S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS

Ottawa is in “Red-Control” status under Ontario’s COVID-19 framework.

Ottawa Public Health data:

  • COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days):50.0 (up from  49.1 on Friday)
  • Positivity rate in Ottawa: 2.9 per cent (March 12-18)
  • Reproduction number: 1.03 (seven day average)

Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.

The orange-restrict category of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework includes a weekly rate of cases per 100,000 between 25 to 39.9, a percent positivity of 1.3 to 2.4 per cent, and a reproduction number of approximately 1 to 1.1.

The red-control threshold is a weekly incidence rate of 40 or more cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent or higher and a reproduction number of 1.2 or more.

VACCINES IN OTTAWA

As of March 19:

  • Vaccine doses administered in Ottawa (first and second shots): 87,737 (up by 4,841 since Wednesday)
  • COVID-19 doses received (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna): 97,170

Ottawa Public Health received a shipment of 10,530 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on March 15. A shipment of 6,100 doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived on March 13.

*OPH says staff were able to extract additional doses out of several vials, which were given to residents. In a statement on its dashboard, OPH said, “Vaccine inventory is based on an expected 5 dose per vial supply. Occasionally, an additional dose (6th dose) is successfully extracted and administered to clients.”

RELATED: How do I get the coronavirus vaccine in Ottawa?

HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA

There are 23 people currently in Ottawa-area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses, up from 21 on Thursday.

Four people are in the intensive care unit.

ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA

Ottawa Public Health is reporting an increase in active COVID-19 cases in Ottawa.

There are 668 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Friday, up from 627 active cases on Thursday.

Thirty-two more Ottawa residents have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. Ottawa Public Health reports 14,795 resolved cases of COVID-19 in the capital.

The number of active cases is the number of total cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is considered resolved 14 days after known symptom onset or positive test result.

COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY

  • 0-9 years old: 10 new cases (1,224 total cases)
  • 10-19 years-old: 16 new cases (1,991 total cases)
  • 20-29 years-old: 18 new cases (3,472 total cases)
  • 30-39 years-old: Nine new cases (2,245 total cases)
  • 40-49 years-old: Six new cases (2,042 total cases)
  • 50-59 years-old: Six new cases (1,909 total cases)
  • 60-69-years-old: Four new cases (1,145 total cases)
  • 70-79 years-old: Four new cases (700 total cases)
  • 80-89 years-old: One new case (716 total cases)
  • 90+ years old: 0 new cases (467 total cases)
  • Unknown: Zero new cases (3 cases total)

COVID-19 CASES ACROSS THE REGION

  • Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 11 cases
  • Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington: 22 cases
  • Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: 16 cases
  • Renfrew County and District Health Unit: One case

INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS

Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 33 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.

There is a new COVID-19 outbreak at Vincent Massey Public School.

One of the COVID-19 outbreaks at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus is over. COVID-19 outbreaks are also over at Ottawa Torah Institute and Gloucester High School.

There are two active community outbreaks: One is linked to a warehouse and one is linked to a multi-unit dwelling.

The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

  • Rodnichok Daycare (March 1)
  • Mac Child Care Centre – Abraar (March 3)
  • École secondaire catholique Paul-Desmarais (March 8)
  • Holy Spirit Elementary School (March 10)
  • École élémentaire publique Julie-Payette
  • École élémentaire catholique Riverside South II (March 12)
  • École secondaire catholique Pierre Savard (March 13)
  • École élémentaire publique Séraphin-Marion (March 14)
  • Vincent Massey Public School  (March 17) [NEW]

The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:

  • Shelter (Jan. 26)
  • Shelter (Jan. 27)
  • The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (Feb. 19)
  • Shelter (Feb. 24)
  • Extendicare Laurier Manor LTCH (Feb. 25)
  • Madonna Care Community (Feb. 26)
  • Sarsfield Colonial Home (Feb. 27)
  • Group Home (March 3)
  • Bearbrook Retirement Residence (March 4)
  • Perley-Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre – Gatineau Building (March 4)
  • Riverpark Retirement Residence (March 6)
  • St. Vincent Hospital (March 6)
  • Extendicare Medex LTCH (March 9)
  • Peter D. Clark LTCH (March 10)
  • Group Home (March 11)
  • Lord Lansdowne RH (March 11)
  • Amica Westboro Park RH (March 12)
  • University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 12)
  • Chapel Hill RH (March 13)
  • The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (March 13)
  • St. Patrick’s Home (March 14)
  • St. Vincent Hospital (March 15)
  • University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 16)

A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, a single confirmed, symptomatic case in a staff member, home daycare provider, or child triggers an outbreak.

Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).

Two staff or patient cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a specified hospital unit within a 14-day period where both cases could have reasonably acquired their infection in hospital is considered an outbreak in a public hospital.

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Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

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LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

X

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Pediatric group says doctors should regularly screen kids for reading difficulties

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The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.

New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.

The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.

Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.

Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.

“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”

McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.

But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.

The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.

He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.

“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.

“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.

McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”

McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.

He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.

“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.

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UK regulator approves second Alzheimer’s drug in months but government won’t pay for it

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LONDON (AP) — Britain’s drug regulator approved the Alzheimer’s drug Kisunla on Wednesday, but the government won’t be paying for it after an independent watchdog agency said the treatment isn’t worth the cost to taxpayers.

It is the second Alzheimer’s drug to receive such a mixed reception within months. In August, the U.K. regulator authorized Leqembi while the same watchdog agency issued draft guidance recommending against its purchase for the National Health Service.

In a statement on Wednesday, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare regulatory Agency said Kisunla “showed some evidence of efficacy in slowing (Alzheimer’s) progression” and approved its use to treat people in the early stages of the brain-robbing disease. Kisunla, also known as donanemab, works by removing a sticky protein from the brain believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease.

Meanwhile, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, or NICE, said more evidence was needed to prove Kisunla’s worth — the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, says a year’s worth of treatment is $32,000. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Kisunla in July. The roll-out of its competitor drug Leqembi has been slowed in the U.S. by spotty insurance coverage, logistical hurdles and financial worries.

NICE said that the cost of administering Kisunla, which requires regular intravenous infusions and rigorous monitoring for potentially severe side effects including brain swelling or bleeding, “means it cannot currently be considered good value for the taxpayer.”

Experts at NICE said they “recognized the importance of new treatment options” for Alzheimer’s and asked Eli Lilly and the National Health Service “to provide additional information to address areas of uncertainty in the evidence.”

Under Britain’s health care system, most people receive free health care paid for by the government, but they could get Kisunla if they were to pay for it privately.

“People living with dementia and their loved ones will undoubtedly be disappointed by the decision not to fund this new treatment,” said Tara Spires-Jones, director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. “The good news that new treatments can slow disease even a small amount is helpful,” she said in a statement, adding that new research would ultimately bring safer and more effective treatments.

Fiona Carragher, chief policy and research officer at the Alzheimer’s Society, said the decision by NICE was “disheartening,” but noted there were about 20 Alzheimer’s drugs being tested in advanced studies, predicting that more drugs would be submitted for approval within years.

“In other diseases like cancer, treatments have become more effective, safer and cheaper over time,” she said. “ We hope to see similar progress in dementia.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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