Health

'Trying to protect this little town': Baddeck pharmacist blasts visitors – CBC.ca

Published

4 years ago

April 1, 2020

A pharmacist in the tourist village of Baddeck, N.S., is begging come-from-aways to stay away, until the restrictions around COVID-19 have been lifted.

Graham Mackenzie took to Twitter over the weekend, admonishing people who were visiting the area and potentially bringing COVID-19 with them.

In an interview with CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton Wednesday, MacKenzie told host Steve Sutherland he was exasperated by the number of visitors in the community.

“When you come into Baddeck, people know if you’re from around here or not, and your licence plate doesn’t lie,” said MacKenzie.

He said that some may have been trying to get away from areas where there are COVID-19 cases, and others may have been opening up their cottages.

“I think people were forgetting just exactly how successful this virus is at spreading,” he said.

“Trying to protect this little town, trying to protect this province, I felt it was just time to say something and remind people to stay home.”

MacKenzie, the owner of Stone’s Pharmasave, and one of three pharmacists working at the store, said the pharmacy has taken its own precautions to keep people safe.

He said a staff member called police one day about a group gathered outside the store.

MacKenzie said the store is also limiting the number of customers in the pharmacy to two at a time.

And he said they recently turned away a customer they know lives with someone who is self-isolating after travelling.

Can’t afford to get sick

MacKenzie said one of the store’s pharmacists is already in quarantine, so he and the other remaining pharmacist cannot afford to get sick.

“The virus really doesn’t know what the guidelines are, so if you’re in the house with somebody and there is a possibility that that person might be infected, we have to assume the same of you,” he said.

“This business has to remain running. If we get sick, the store closes.”

MacKenzie said he knows the local economy depends heavily on tourists and other visitors, and he thought about how his message on social media might be perceived.

Strang urges tourists to stay home

In a press conference on Tuesday, the province’s chief medical officer of health echoed the pharmacist’s message to tourists and cottage owners from outside Nova Scotia.

“Certainly we don’t want people coming from other parts of Canada,” said Dr. Robert Strang.

As of March 23, anyone from outside Nova Scotia is being instructed to self-isolate for 14 days upon arriving in the province. Those who fail to obey the isolation order could be fined $1,000 per day.

Some travellers are exempt from the self-isolation rules, including truckers, medical staff and people travelling over the provincial border for medical treatment.

“This is not time to be travelling across the country, to be moving from one part of the country to another,” Strang said Tuesday.

“People need to stay in their home community and their home province as we try to ride this COVID-19 issue out together.”

Strang said that if people from other parts of Nova Scotia want to go to their cottage, they need to make sure they are self-sufficient at that location.

“People need to understand if they go to a more remote area [and] if they become sick, there may be more challenges around accessing care.”

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The US is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

“Before you visit with your family and friends this holiday season, take a quick test and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Before using any existing at-home COVID-19 tests, you should check the expiration date. Many of the tests have been given an extended expiration from the date listed on the box. You can check on the Food and Drug Administration’s website to see if that’s the case for any of your remaining tests at home.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

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Free COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order a test to your home

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests sent straight to their homes.

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Health

Disability rights groups launching Charter challenge against MAID law

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – A coalition of disability rights groups says it is launching a Charter challenge against a part of Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

The group, which also includes two individual plaintiffs, argues that what’s known as track two of the MAID law has resulted in premature deaths.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death.

The coalition says track two of the MAID law has had a direct effect on the lives of people with disabilities and argues medically assisted death should only be available to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada – which is part of the coalition – says there has been an alarming trend where people with disabilities are seeking assisted death due to social deprivation, poverty and a lack of essential supports.

Krista Carr says those individuals should instead be supported in order to live better lives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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