Patients lay on stretchers in the hallway of the emergency department as the unit was at maximum capacity at the Humber River Hospital in Toronto, on Dec. 9, 2020.
Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Ontario government is considering new restrictions, including an extended school holiday break, as the province’s hospitals issued an urgent call for further lockdowns to address rapidly rising COVID-19 case totals.
Citing an “extremely serious” situation that risks overwhelming the health care system, the Ontario Hospital Association on Thursday called for more regions to be locked down and for even stricter restrictions to be considered. The province on Thursday reported a record 2,432 new COVID-19 cases, with 919 people currently in hospital – down slightly from the day before – and 263 in intensive care units.
Premier Doug Ford called the situation in hospitals a concern and told reporters that “every option is on the table,” but he said there are many factors to weigh in a lockdown, including the availability of childcare, isolation facilities for those who test positive and help for struggling small businesses.
“The worst thing we could do is rush out there and make a snap decision in a heartbeat,” Mr. Ford said. “We have to make sure if we do make this decision,is it going to be two weeks, is it going to be three weeks, is it going to be 28 days?
“I will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to slow down this trend that we see and get it back well within the numbers that we can control in our hospitals.”
Earlier on Thursday, when asked about extending school breaks, Health Minister Christine Elliott said the province is looking at all options. However the government has repeatedly said its priority is keeping schools open.
Mr. Ford’s cabinet is set to meet Friday to discuss new restrictions, including whether more regions should be moved into lockdown zones, although the government is not expected to announce if it is imposing any widespread restrictions until next week.
Currently, four regions of the province are in lockdown, including Toronto and Peel Region, whose 28-day lockdowns expire on Monday at 12:01 a.m. York Region and Windsor-Essex were also moved into lockdown last week, which means all non-essential businesses and personal care services are closed, although big-box stores can remain open.
Mr. Ford on Thursday said he is particularly concerned with the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton, but not the west Toronto suburb of Halton.
The board of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), which includes 18 current and former hospital leaders, on Thursday called for a four-week lockdown in every public-health unit with an infection rate of 40 per 100,000 population or higher. That would mean about 15 of the province’s 34 public-health units, including the entire Greater Toronto Area, would be closed to all but essential businesses over the holidays.
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The OHA also recommended that the grey lockdown zones of the province’s framework – the zones with maximum restrictions – be “rapidly re-evaluated” by independent public-health and epidemiologists to determine if additional, stricter measures are necessary.
Anthony Dale, president and CEO of the OHA, said there is growing concern in the health care community about the impact of the holiday season on hospitals.
“If we see widespread decisions to ignore public-health advice, we’re in for a moment of historic difficulty in Ontario’s hospitals,” he said. Mr. Dale said the OHA is not making specific recommendations around what stricter measures might entail, but he said they could perhaps include implementing curfews or enforcing limits on private gatherings. Mr. Ford said Ontario was not considering a curfew at this time.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, David Williams, said he and provincial health experts had made recommendations to the government but would not say on Thursday what they were. He said he’s spoken to the medical officers in Toronto and Peel, which includes Brampton and Mississauga, to see if the lockdown zones need to be a “darker shade of grey,” meaning more restrictions.
Still, Dr. Williams said the province is doing everything possible to keep schools open, which he said has been quite successful. However, he said elementary schools are different from secondary schools, with transmission higher among older students in the community.
Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor John Tory on Thursday said talks between local and provincial officials on what to do next were continuing, and he believed a regional approach across the Greater Toronto Area was needed to keep people from crossing municipal boundaries to shop.
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He said lengthening the winter school break into January was an option, as was a stronger recommendation for office workers to stay home.
While Mr. Tory said non-essential retailers should still be allowed to offer curbside pickup and delivery, he argued that any new rules should also address the “inconsistency” of allowing big-box retailers such as Walmart to stay open while selling a range of goods because they also offer groceries.
“We need to provide fewer places for people to go, recognizing they have some real necessities,” Mr. Tory said.
The initial COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada and around the world raise questions about how people react to the shot, how pregnant women should approach it and how far away herd immunity may be. Globe health reporter Kelly Grant and science reporter Ivan Semeniuk discuss the answers.The Globe and Mail
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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.
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