One person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus in London and Middlesex, six others have recovered, and three seniors’ home outbreaks have been resolved, local health officials reported on Friday.
The update brings the total number of confirmed cases in the region to 549, of which 403 have recovered, or about 73 per cent of cases. Fifty-six people have died, a tally that remained unchanged from the day before.
The new case was reported in London and is not linked to a long-term care or retirement home, or to Ontario Plants Propagation (OPP), where an outbreak among migrant farmworkers has left at least 21 sickened, including one case confirmed by Elgin and Oxford county health officials.
Of the 13 confirmed cases that have been reported in London and Middlesex since Monday, none have been associated with seniors’ homes or to the OPP outbreak.
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Overall, at least 512 of the region’s cases have been reported in London — about 93 per cent — while 20 cases have been reported in Strathroy-Caradoc and seven cases have been in Middlesex Centre.
Elsewhere, four cases each have been reported in North Middlesex and Thames Centre, and one each has been reported in Lucan Biddulph and Southwest Middlesex.
Health officials say the number of active outbreaks in London and Middlesex dropped to three on Friday after three other outbreaks were declared over the day before.
The outbreaks at Country Terrace, Waverly Mansion and Chelsey Park (LTCH) were declared on May 15, 18 and 23, respectively.
Combined, health unit data shows the three outbreaks saw six positive cases involving one resident and five staff members. The resident, reported positive at Waverly Mansion, later died.
At least 19 of the 24 outbreaks that have been declared locally during the pandemic have involved seniors’ facilities.
2:19 Coronavirus outbreak: Ontario long-term care operator executive allegedly recorded making inappropriate comments
Coronavirus outbreak: Ontario long-term care operator executive allegedly recorded making inappropriate comments
Three active outbreaks remain in the region, the lowest number of simultaneous COVID-19 outbreaks since late March.
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Outbreaks remain at Kensington Village, Sisters of St. Joseph and Chelsey Park Retirement Community. They were declared April 3, April 17 and May 30, respectively.
Combined, the three facilities have reported at least 51 cases involving 27 residents and 24 staff members, according to health unit data. At least nine residents have died, along with two staff members.
In terms of total case count, the most severe of the three outbreaks has been at Sisters of St. Joseph, where at least 25 cases have been reported involving 13 residents and 12 staff members.
Of those, three residents and one staff member have since died.
At least 457 outbreaks have been reported at seniors’ homes across the province since mid-January, according to Public Health Ontario. Of those, at least 247 remained active as of Thursday.
The number of hospitalized patients in the city declined by one to eight as of midnight Friday, according to the most recent update from London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
The figure is a combination of cases at University and Victoria hospitals. It’s not clear whether any are in intensive care.
Meantime, in its most recent update on Tuesday, St. Joseph’s Health Care reported it was treating no COVID-19 patients at St. Joseph’s Hospital. The only case in its system is located at the main building of Parkwood Institute.
Hospitalizations account for about 19 per cent of all cases in London and Middlesex. Of those, 5.3 per cent have had to be admitted to intensive care.
A vast majority of hospitalized cases, nearly 90 per cent, involve patients over 50, according to health unit figures.
LHSC announced Friday that it would stop releasing an updated number of positive cases among staff members unless the tally increased by five or greater. The organization said it was to protect staff privacy.
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In its update on Wednesday, LHSC said there had been at least 42 staff cases reported during the pandemic.
At least 18 staff members with St. Joseph’s Health Care have tested positive. It’s not clear how many cases remain active.
At least 410 hospital workers across Ontario have tested positive for the virus since mid-January, while 393 residents/patients have also been infected, according to Public Health Ontario.
One person has recovered from the novel coronavirus, officials with Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) reported Friday.
The total number of confirmed cases remains at 75, of which now 66 have recovered. Four people have died. No new deaths have been reported since April 22.
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SWPH reported three recoveries on Thursday, one recovery Wednesday and one new case and recovery on Tuesday.
Officials say an outbreak at Secord Trails that has left at least eight staff sickened remains active as of Friday. The long-term care facility in Ingersoll has seen an active outbreak since May 18.
Of the five cases that remain active in the region, three are in Oxford County, including two in Tillsonburg and one in Woodstock, while two remain active in Elgin County, both in St. Thomas.
According to health unit data, no new COVID-19-related hospitalizations have been reported since April 28. No COVID-19 patients have been in the hospital since the start of May.
As of Friday, 5,537 tests had been conducted in Elgin and Oxford counties, of which 521 remained pending results.
Of the tests conducted in the region, 1.5 per cent come back positive, according to SWPH.
Huron and Perth
No new cases, deaths, or recoveries have been reported by Huron Perth Public Health (HPPH).
At least 54 cases have been reported in the region, of which 46 have recovered and five have died. No new deaths have been reported in the region since April 29.
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The last new case to be reported by health officials was on Wednesday. Before that, a case was reported on Monday.
Three active cases remain in the region, including two in St. Marys — both reported earlier this week — and one in Stratford.
The number of active outbreaks remains at zero. A total of seven have been declared, linked to 27 cases.
All but seven of those cases were reported at Greenwood Court in Stratford. An outbreak there saw six residents and 10 staff members test positive, and four people die. It was declared over May 11.
Twenty-six cases have been reported in Stratford, while 13 have been reported in Huron County and 11 in Perth County.
Four cases have been in St. Marys, including the region’s first two.
The health unit said 3,829 tests had been administered in Huron and Perth as of Friday. Of those, 124 were awaiting test results.
Sarnia and Lambton
One person has tested positive for the novel coronavirus while six people have recovered, officials with Lambton Public Health (LPH) reported late Thursday.
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It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 267, of which 217 have recovered. Twenty-four people have also died, a tally that remained unchanged.
Health unit figures show Thursday’s case is not connected to an ongoing outbreak at Vision Nursing Home in Sarnia that has sickened 26 residents and 25 staff members. Nine residents have since died.
Still-positive residents from the home have been moved to Bluewater Health hospital to keep the outbreak from spreading.
The hospital says it’s treating 12 COVID-19 patients as of Friday, along with 26 who are suspected positive or are awaiting tests — figures unchanged from the day before.
The outbreak at Vision Nursing Home is the lone active outbreak in the county.
Nearly all of Lambton’s outbreak-related cases are linked to Vision Nursing Home and to a since-resolved outbreak at Landmark Village.
According to the health unit, 40 per cent of all COVID-19 cases in the county have been outbreak-related, followed by 35 per cent that are related to close contact.
Health officials reported one recovery late Wednesday, one death, three new cases and three recoveries late Tuesday, and one death and six recoveries late Monday.
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As of late Thursday, LPH said 7,575 test results had been received by health officials. It’s not clear how many cases are still pending.
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.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
