Almost half of Canada’s COVID-19 cases are caused by spread in the community from an unknown source, and experts say that signals there could be a silent epidemic happening across the country.
Of the 1,044 cases that the Public Health Agency of Canada has provided epidemiological data on as of Monday, 48 per cent are a result of infection from community transmission, while 42 per cent are tied to travel and seven per cent are linked to close contact with a traveller who tested positive.
Community transmission is the spread of an illness with no known link to travel or previously confirmed cases, which suggests a growing number of cases are likely going unreported across the country.
“It’s about 50 per cent of travellers versus those who are acquiring it in the community,” Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, said Tuesday.
“That is a fundamental shift in our epidemiology.”
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, says the growing number of COVID-19 cases from community transmission signals a ‘fundamental shift in our epidemiology.’ (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair of emerging viruses, said that shift makes it more difficult to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Canada.
“If a virus is now spreading in the community, what that means is that we don’t have a really good ability to be able to monitor where that virus is, who it’s going to and who that person has contacted,” he said.
“You don’t know where the virus is at any particular moment in time, and now what you have is basically the potential for that person to pass it on to a much larger group of people.”
“They’re not maybe being monitored through self-isolation or health officials don’t know that that person is infected,” he said. “So it creates a much broader concern very, very quickly for us in terms of the transmission of this virus.”
Given the available data from the federal government only covers about half the number of confirmed or presumptive cases in Canada as of Monday, experts say it will be some time before we know the true picture of how widespread community transmission is in Canada.
“It could be more or less than that. It’s probably more,” said Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor in the department of medicine at the University of Toronto who studies infectious diseases.
WATCH | How social distancing can make a difference in stopping spread of COVID-19.
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“In Ontario, there have been challenges with testing as many people as possible. And because patients are being told when they’re unwell, but not very unwell, to just stay away and not get tested, it drops our numbers substantially.”
While Ontario’s assessment centres have been conducting roughly 3,000 swab tests per day, the province’s labs are currently producing only 2,000 to 2,100 test results each day.
Morris said he expects levels of community transmission to rise in Canada, in part because cases in the community with mild symptoms are not being treated and are not being added to the total.
“Because borders have closed over time, we’re going to see almost no cases related to travel,” he said. “Almost all cases will be community acquired.”
Social distancing key to stopping community spread
In an effort to stop the spread, Tam and other public health officials continue to urge healthy Canadians to stay at home, wash their hands frequently and keep two metres apart from others when venturing outside.
Morris said that given what we know from other countries about how the virus spreads, Canada needs to take an “aggressive approach” when it comes to social distancing to curb community transmission.
“The people who can take care of most of the cases are the people at home,” he said.
“If everyone just does their best to maintain their distance from everyone else, and stop meeting anyone outside of your household, then that should do the job.”
Kindrachuk said that while there are severe cases of COVID-19, the “vast majority” of infected people experience mild or moderate respiratory symptoms and can even spread the virus before developing symptoms.
“For every one case we identify, there are probably quite a few other cases that have not been identified and that are able to transmit virus readily in our communities,” he said.
A man sits alone as he watches the sunset in downtown Vancouver on Friday. Dr. Andrew Morris says Canada needs to take an ‘aggressive approach’ to social distancing to curb community transmission. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
He said the rising rate of community transmission has moved Canada into a “new phase” and that now is the time for Canadians to take social distancing seriously.
“I think we still have a chance in Canada right now to try and curb transmission as much as possible because cases are not growing exponentially across the country,” he said.
“But we are kind of getting close to that precipice where the window is closing for us to really try and tamper down the transmission…. We all need to kind of play our part in that as much as possible.”
Dr. Srinivas Murthy, an infectious disease specialist and clinical associate professor in pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, said social distancing is particularly important for the minority of people with few symptoms who never get diagnosed.
“If you can envision a world where we all stay in the same place, six feet away from everybody else for the next 14 days, then the virus would die itself out,” Murthy said. “The outbreak would end.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
