Manitoba health-care workers will be screened before heading into hospitals for shifts after new cases of front-line staff testing positive for coronavirus.
The measure, announced Wednesday, comes as several staff from three different hospitals are self-isolating, following exposure to four co-workers who tested positive for COVID-19.
CBC News has learned those four include two workers from the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg who have tested positive in recent days. There have also been positive cases at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg and the Selkirk Regional Health Centre.
Dr. Brett Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, said Tuesday a worker at the Selkirk health centre had tested positive.
He confirmed Wednesday that workers from Grace and St. Boniface hospitals had also tested positive. He did not specify how many cases there were at either of those Winnipeg hospitals.
A note from Shared Health sent to staff at St. Boniface Hospital Tuesday informed workers that a worker in the echocardiogram department at that hospital had tested positive.
The memo recommended any staff who worked alongside the employee recently to self-isolate for 14 days.
Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals president Bob Moroz confirmed Wednesday that a member of the union has tested positive for COVID-19, though he would not confirm where the person worked.
The Manitoba Nurses Union said Tuesday an emergency department nurse at a Winnipeg hospital had tested positive. On Wednesday, an MNU spokesperson said the union had learned of a second positive case at the same hospital.
Moroz said that health-care worker is a member of MAHCP.
He wouldn’t reveal that workers’ profession, but said due to the nature of the job the person would’ve routinely moved throughout the facility in recent days. The worker has no known recent travel history, said Moroz.
Both unions say several health-care workers at the hospital have begun self-isolating.
Workers screened on job
Starting Wednesday, all health-care workers entering Health Sciences Centre and other hospitals’ access points will undergoing a screening.
The Manitoba Nurses’ Union said it is aware of a screening process that health-care workers will have to undergo at access points to Health Science Centre beginning Wednesday. (Trevor Brine/CBC)
Workers’ temperatures will be taken, symptoms checked, and they will be asked about recent travel history and exposure to known COVID-19 cases at all critical care areas, said chief nursing officer Lanette Siragusa.
She said the screening update follows confirmation of health-care workers at three different cites testing positive in recent days.
“This news of course is very upsetting to us,” she said. “Our investigations have not identified … any patients at these sites as being in close contact with these recent individuals.”
Siragusa said staff who worked closely with the positive workers have been asked to self-isolate for two weeks.
The contact investigation involving the worker at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre — tracing who that worker came into direct contact with in recent days — is ongoing, Roussin said.
The Manitoba Nurses Union confirmed several nurses at the Selkirk hospital are self-isolating after coming into contact with the confirmed health-care worker.
Call for more nurses
Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen issued a call Wednesday morning for more nurses to come forward and re-register — retirees, nursing instructors, those who recently returned to Manitoba but aren’t working, and more.
“If you fit these criteria we are asking for your help,” Friessen said. “Now is the time to broadly solicit for help.”
Premier Brian Pallister acknowledged health-care workers have become infected in other jurisdictions, and said it was inevitable it would occur in Manitoba.
But he said the call for more nurses isn’t a result of workers testing positive locally. He said it has been on the province’s radar for some time as measures ramp up to control the spread.
Moroz said his union is concerned about worst case scenarios that could lead to staffing shortages due to frontline workers contracting the virus.
As with the call for more nurses, Moroz said it’s only a matter of time before the government is issuing a similar call for more respiratory therapists, which his union represents.
“Our members were already working short-staffed in way too many areas before this crisis hit,” said Moroz. “As always, it’s up to the employer to ensure adequate staffing and to issue calls for help where they need it, as they did for nurses with critical care experience yesterday.”
He said some workers are facing barriers accessing personal protective equipment on the job, or are told certain tasks or involvement with patients don’t require the wearing of gear.
Friesen said the province has adequate supplies of personal protective equipment for now and is waiting on orders for more.
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.
