Health
Alberta adds 323 COVID-19 cases Oct 20
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EDMONTON —
Active cases of COVID-19 saw another increase Tuesday after Alberta’s top doctor reported 323 new cases of the disease.
There are now 3,203 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Alberta, with 1,607 in the Edmonton zone and 1,043 in the Calgary zone.
Alberta Health also reported one more death as a result of COVID-19 in a man in his 70s linked to the outbreak at Edmonton’s Terra Losa Lifestyle Options retirement home.
Eight per cent of schools across the province have been affected by the coronavirus since September, with 512 active cases and 96 outbreaks.
Alberta has reported 22,996 cases and 293 deaths since March.
HIGHER HOSPITALIZATIONS
Hospitalizations decreased slightly to 116, including 16 patients in ICU, but the chief medical officer of health is concerned about the current numbers.
“Last week I mentioned the trend in higher hospitalization numbers is something that we are watching closely,” Dr. Deena Hinshaw said. “We are currently at a compounded daily COVID hospitalization rise of 3.1 per cent across the province in the past two weeks, which is getting closer to the five per cent trigger threshold.”
Hinshaw previously announced a five per cent hospitalization rate would trigger mandatory restrictions.
The factors for the increase in hospitalizations, she said, are mainly community spread and several hospital outbreaks.
Alberta is currently using 23 per cent of the 70 ICU beds allocated to COVID-19 patients.
EDMONTON ZONE DATA
The chief medical officer of health is also concerned about the Edmonton zone having just over half of Alberta’s COVID-19 infections.
It has been two weeks since she introduced some voluntary restriction in the capital region. The situation has improved slightly — but some worrying signs remain.
Hinshaw revealed the Edmonton zone’s reproduction value has decreased from 1.35 to 1.17, but that isn’t good enough.
“This is a good start, but the bad news is that anytime the R-value remains above 1, the number of cases is still growing. We need to bring this value below 1 to reduce the burden on our health system.”
The city of Edmonton has 1,318 active cases.
NEW TESTING CHANGE
One month ago, Hinshaw changed Alberta Health Services’ testing strategy to focus asymptomatic testing solely on priority groups.
But with cold and flu season, wait times have not decreased as much as health officials hoped.
So, effective immediately, AHS will only test Albertans with symptoms and people with close contacts and linked to outbreaks.
“The evidence is clear: Asymptomatic individuals without known exposures are not driving the spread in Alberta,” Hinshaw said.
Asymptomatic appointments already booked will be kept until Nov. 4.
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Health
RCMP warn about benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl tied to overdose in Alberta – Edmonton Journal
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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.
The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.
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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.
The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.
Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”
From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.
Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.
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Health
CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture
The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.
Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.
The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.
Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.
As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.
This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.
Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.
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Health
Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star
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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.
By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.
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