Eleven of those cases are attributed to Monday’s tally, 22 on Sunday and 19 on Saturday. The MLHU also reported a death on Saturday involving a fully vaccinated woman in her 80s, not associated with a long-term care or retirement home.
The test positivity rate in the region was 2.9 per cent for the week of Aug. 29, the same as the week prior.
Hospitalizations
London Health Sciences Centre says it is caring for seven inpatients with COVID-19 as of Monday, a decrease of two from Friday. Five or fewer patients are in adult intensive care.
Five or fewer inpatients with COVID-19 are in Children’s Hospital, with none in pediatric critical care.
Five or fewer staff are currently positive with COVID-19, the organization reported, a decrease from six on Tuesday.
St. Joseph’s Health Care London (SJHCL) is reporting one non-outbreak case involving a health-care worker.
Outbreaks
The outbreak at McCormick Home, declared Sept. 3, was declared over Sept. 11. It had involved two of its resident home areas: Memory Lane (dedicated dementia care wing) and Evergreen Walk.
4:13 Engage or ignore? Tim Caulfield on dealing with spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation
Engage or ignore? Tim Caulfield on dealing with spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation
Schools and childcare
The MLHU is reporting cases at the following schools in its jurisdiction:
École élémentaire La Pommeraie, one case
École secondaire catholique Monseigneur-Bruyère, three cases
Hillcrest Public School, one case
Kensal Park Public School, two cases
Lambeth Public School, one case
Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School, one case
Vaccinations and testing
As of the end of day Sept. 4, the MLHU says 77.3 per cent of residents aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 84.0 per cent have had at least one dose.
MLHU data says, in the last six weeks, one death involved an unvaccinated individual and one involved a fully vaccinated individual. However, five deaths have been recorded in that time.
“First of all, I can tell you that we have a data issue that is being addressed as we speak,” medical officer of health Dr. Chris Mackie explained Monday.
Mackie says the data includes three dates: the episode date which is when symptoms began, the date of diagnosis, and the date of death.
“When we updated the dashboard last week, the script that was written to do that, unfortunately, accidentally took the episode date as if it were the death date.”
As a result, deaths among individuals who first developed symptoms more than six weeks ago were not included in the latest update.
“The stat about 50 per cent, unfortunately, is not correct. We’ll get that corrected as soon as we can.”
According to the available data, only two hospitalizations, or 6.67 per cent of hospitalizations, involved individuals who were fully vaccinated.
As for reported cases in general, 16.97 per cent (or 139 of 819 cases) involved people who were fully vaccinated and 16.0 per cent (or 131 cases) were partially vaccinated.
According to Monday’s report, 114 cases were recorded in Toronto, 84 in Peel Region, 67 in York Region, 59 in Ottawa, 47 in Windsor-Essex, 32 in Niagara Region and 30 in Waterloo Region. All other health units reported fewer than 30 cases.
Southwestern Public Health reported 28 cases from Saturday to Monday and also removed one case from its total tally due to data cleaning, for a total of:
4,158 total cases (an increase of 27)
50 active cases (an increase of nine)
4,023 recoveries (an increase of 18)
85 deaths
1,063 variant of concern cases, with 769 Alpha, 239 Delta (an increase of 27) and 55 Beta or Gamma
The most recent death was reported Aug. 31 and involved a woman in her 80s from Oxford County.
Of the 50 active cases, 12 are in Woodstock, 10 in St. Thomas, nine in South-West Oxford, and seven in Aylmer. Per-municipality case counts for the pandemic can be found on the health unit’sdashboard.
Four people are hospitalized with COVID-19, with one in the ICU.
There are no active institutional outbreaks, the health unit says.
2,087 total cases (an increase of eight from Friday)
31 active cases (a decrease of one)
1,993 recoveries (an increase of eight)
63 deaths (an increase of one)
419 variant of concern cases (an increase of four)
Of the 31 active cases, eight are in Stratford, five in Perth East, and three each in South Huron, North Perth, Perth South and West Perth. Case counts by municipality can be found on the health unit’s dashboard.
Four people are listed as hospitalized as of Monday, unchanged from Friday.
There is still one active case involving a health-care worker.
A outbreak declared Aug. 20 involving Knollcrest Lodge in Perth East remains active and involves a total of 12 cases with seven among residents and five among staff as of Monday. At least four deaths are associated with the outbreak.
The region’s test positivity rate was 2.2 per cent for the week of Aug. 29, up from an adjusted 1.8 per cent for the week of Aug. 22.
HPPH’s vaccine dashboard showed that as of Sept. 13, 75.7 per cent of residents 12 and older were fully vaccinated while 81.8 per cent have had at least one dose.
Those who are able to get vaccinated on short notice are encouraged to sign up for Lambton Public Health’s daily Vaccine Standby List.
Residents can book and re-book COVID-19 vaccine appointments using the health unit’s registration page. People can also call the vaccine call centre at 226-254-8222.
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
