“Manitoba is leading in recovery with a safe plan to restart our economy, which is why we are ready to make another important investment that supports the restart of our economy and invite the CFL to safely play its shortened 2020 season in Winnipeg,” the premier proudly declared on that day nearly a month ago. “We are excited to work with Travel Manitoba and key economic stakeholders to develop our #RestartMB Event Attraction Strategy that will benefit the entire provincial economy, but in particular, the hardest-hit sectors of tourism and hospitality, namely restaurants and hotels.”
But at least Manitoba will have an extra $2.5 million available to spend fighting a pandemic that we have yet to tackle.
— Paul Samyn, Winnipeg Free Press editor
THE LATEST NUMBERS
Note: Manitoba and Canada figures may not match due to differences in data sources.
THE LATEST IN MANITOBA
• Manitoba’s spike in active cases — from one at the beginning of July to 232 today — comes as no surprise to Manitoba’s chief medical officer, Dr. Brent Roussin. “We had that nice stretch — and we’ll take it — but we knew we’re in a pandemic. Most of us in public health were definitely expecting numbers like this and possibly worse in the fall respiratory virus season,” he said Monday. Officials reported 38 new cases Monday, 20 of which are in the Prairie Mountain health region, 12 in the Southern health region, five in Winnipeg and one in the Interlake-Eastern health region. One of the cases in the Southern region is at a personal care home in Steinbach.
THE LATEST ELSEWHERE
• The Canadian Football League has punted its restart into 2021. For months, the nine-team league has been struggling to produce a workable plan to have some kind of season in 2020, which would have included playing all its games in Winnipeg. Deadline after deadline came and went, and the difficulties making money in a league where the bulk of revenue is ticket purchases, at a time when there would be no tickets sold, proved insurmountable. The final nail in the coffin was the federal government’s denial of the league’s request for a $30-million interest-free loan. It is the first time in the league’s history for a season to be cancelled, and will be the first time the Grey Cup will not be presented to a Canadian champion since 1919, which predated the founding of the CFL.
• A group of parents in Quebec want the freedom to decide whether to send their children to in-person education when schools reopen, and they’re willing to go to court to get it. The parents will file a motion in Quebec Superior Court arguing forced attendance during a pandemic violates their charter rights to make decisions regarding the health and safety of their children. “There are certain decisions that cannot be made by the government for people,” the group’s lawyer, Julius Grey, said. “Of course the government can make basic curriculum decisions — for instance, people who wanted to protect their children from the study of science were always rebuffed — but they cannot make these fundamental decisions about life, death, security.” Quebec’s rules say children who lack a medical reason related to COVID-19 must attend classes or be home-schooled.
• Universities across the U.S. are dealing with outbreaks as students return to campus and, apparently, throw caution to the wind when visiting local bars and nightclubs. At Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Ok., officials reported 23 cases linked to a group of students who crowded into a local bar without masks or distancing. Other clusters popped up in dorm at the University of North Carolina and 58 cases at Notre Dame University in South Bend, In. Officials at the Universty of Tennessee at Chattanooga are trying to trace contacts with a known outbreak among members of a fraternity and a sorority. At the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, officials are exhorting students to protect its treasured football program. “If you don’t want to protect yourself and you don’t want to protect your family and you don’t want to protect your friends and thousands of jobs, maybe, just maybe, you would want to protect football season so we can have it this fall,” Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said.
• In Utah, Hispanics and other people of colour are being hit disproportionately hit by workplace COVID-19 outbreaks, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday. From March to early June, 12 per cent of the state’s coronavirus cases were tied to workplace outbreaks, mostly in manufacturing, construction and wholesale trade. The report found that 73 per cent of the cases in these outbreaks affected Hispanic or other people of colour, even though they only make up 24 per cent of the workers in those industries. The report noted that minority workers typically have less flexible work schedules and fewer telework opportunities compared to white employees.
QUOTE, UNQUOTE
“We’re finding that the majority of community spread right now is happening from parties, either indoors or outdoors, where people are with their families or friends and believe there’s no one there… (who) has COVID.”
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.
