COVID-19: Potential exposure at Halloween event at Rideau Street venue; Ontario reports 438 new cases – Ottawa Citizen

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Ontario reported 438 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, with 279 cases in people who were not fully vaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown, and 159 in fully vaccinated people.

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The seven-day average for new cases sat at 383, up slightly from 366 a week earlier, and down from 565 at the same time last month.

Those in hospital testing positive for COVID-19 numbered 234, while the number of people in ICU due to a COVID-related critical illness was 130 (including 24 patients from Saskatchewan), dropping to 109 if you include just those still testing positive.

A week ago, those totals were 197 and 104, respectively, for hospitalizations and those in ICU testing positive.

Five more COVID-19 deaths were reported in Ontario in the previous 24 hours.

In terms of active cases, the five most affected public health unit regions in Ontario as of Thursday were Sudbury & District (85.4 cases per 100,000 people), Haldimand-Norfolk (45.6) Chatham-Kent (44.2), Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington (39.5) and Niagara Region (38.5).

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In health unit regions near the capital, the case count rose by 17 in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington, four in Eastern Ontario, three in Renfrew County and District, two in Hastings Prince Edward, and one in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark.

COVID-19 news in Ontario

Opposition politicians and some health care associations in Ontario are not pleased with Premier Doug Ford’s Wednesday decision to continuing leaving it up to individual hospitals to establish their own mandatory vaccination policies for staff, rather than imposing such a policy province-wide.

Doris Grinspun, head of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, called the decision “a disgrace to patients and to the great majority of health-care workers who desperately are supporting mandatory vaccination.”

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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said she was skeptical of Ford’s figure about the scale of the potential worker shortage.

“If the government’s making decisions based on facts then they should be showing people what it is that they’re making their decisions on.”

COVID-19 news in Ottawa

Ottawa Public Health reported 30 new COVID-19 cases and no additional deaths Thursday.

There were 193 active cases city-wide, a number that rose through the late summer and early fall, before peaking at more than 700 in mid-September. It’s been trending down since.

Eleven Ottawans were in hospital with an active COVID-19 infection, none of whom were in ICU.

Two new COVID-19 outbreaks were reported Thursday: one involving three residents at supported independent living home, and the other involving two student cases at Connaught Public School. There are now 11 ongoing outbreaks at schools or child care centres, and four in health care or congregate living institutions.

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There are no known outbreaks in community settings.

According to the OPH vaccination dashboard, 87 per cent of Ottawa’s 12 and older population is fully vaccinated, while 90 per cent has at least one dose.

Ottawa Public Health is ramping up service at its four community vaccination clinics to seven days a week to help deliver booster shots to those eligible.

Eligible are those 70 and older, health-care workers, essential caregivers in congregate settings, people who got two doses of AstraZeneca or one of Janssen, and First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals aged 16 and older as well as their non-Indigenous household members.

They can book third-dose appointments through the provincial online system or call centre starting Saturday at 8 a.m. They can only get the shot at least six months after their last dose.

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The OPH community clinics are located at the University of Ottawa’s Minto Sports Complex, JH Putman School, Eva James Memorial Centre, and Orleans Ruddy Family YMCA-YWCA.

Some pharmacies will also be providing third doses (the province has a pharmacy locator online) and according to OPH, many health-care workers and eligible first responders will be able to get their third dose through their employer.

And FYI – getting a third dose won’t impact your flu shot, OPH said. COVID-19 vaccines can be given at the same time, or before or after other vaccines.

Speaking of vaccine mandates, the new Treasury Board president, Ottawa–Vanier MP Mona Fortier, said that 99.7 per cent of bureaucrats in what’s called the “core public administration” have attested to their vaccination status.

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(The PMO said last month that Crown corporations and separate agencies were being asked to implement their own, equally stringent vax policies.)

Public servants had until Oct. 29 to complete the attestation, with the federal government stating that those who weren’t willing to disclose their vaccination status or to be fully vaccinated would be placed on leave without pay as early as Nov. 15.

Fortier said 95 per cent of this 268,000-strong federal public service workforce has said they are fully vaccinated, a number that rises to 98 per cent if you include those with one shot. Approximately one per cent of employees are seeking accommodation, according to Fortier, and these requests are “being assessed on a case-by-case basis in departments.”

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Anyone who attended a “Back from the Dead” Halloween event at Mavericks on Rideau Street last Saturday between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. may have been exposed to COVID-19, says Ottawa Public Health.

Two people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 attended the event during the period when they were contagious.

All attendees are being told by OPH to monitor for symptoms for 10 days, and to self-isolate and get tested if they develop any. When presenting for testing, OPH asked that attendees provide this testing number: 490723.

“Ottawa Public Health has assessed the nature of this event and determined that individuals who attended the event are at an increased risk of COVID-19 exposure as there were several opportunities for transmission to occur,” the health unit wrote, in a public statement.

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Attendees with questions can find more information at Ottawapublichealth.ca/Mavericks

COVID-19 news in Quebec

Quebec reported 588 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, and no additional deaths.

Of the newly reported cases, 377 were in people who weren’t fully vaccinated and nine were logged in the Outaouais.

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across the province dropped by seven, to a total of 241, while ICU occupancy decreased by seven, to 63.

According to the province, unvaccinated people faced a 18.5 times higher risk of hospitalization compared to the fully vaccinated, using data from the last month.

In Quebec’s 12-and-older population, 90 per cent have at least a first dose and 87 per cent are fully vaccinated.

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COVID-19 news in Canada

Pricey and “irrational” COVID-19 tests, along with “discriminatory” quarantine policies for kids, are making it difficult for families to travel even when all adults are fully vaccinated, according to members of the Canadian Travel and Tourism Roundtable

All travellers over the age of five, regardless of citizenship or vaccination status, must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 molecular test in order to enter the country. Rapid antigen tests are not adequate under Canada’s rules.

That can cost between $150 and $300 for each test, making it prohibitively expensive for many families.

Meanwhile, children can’t attend school, camp or daycare, be in crowded places or take public transportation for 14 days once they return home to Canada.

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“It’s irrational,” said Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, who is also co-chair of the roundtable. “It simply doesn’t make sense.”

Beatty joined members of the travel and tourism industry at a press conference Thursday to call on the federal government to remove “unnecessary and non-science-based” obstacles to international travel for families.

In a press release, the roundtable called for children to be able to return to school post-travel after being tested rather than quarantining until a vaccine for those under 12 is approved, and for an end to the pre-departure PCR testing requirement for fully vaccinated travellers.

The latest figures from the Public Health Agency of Canada show that of all COVID-19 tests completed at the border on vaccinated travellers between Aug. 9 and Oct. 21, only 0.18 per cent were positive.

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For unvaccinated and partially vaccinated travellers, 0.91 per cent were positive.

Last week, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said test requirements at the border are “very much a live issue,” but that she still believes pre-departure tests are an important layer of protection to prevent COVID-19 cases being imported to Canada.

“For now, we haven’t shifted that policy, but we’re reviewing that on an ongoing basis,” Tam said Oct. 29. “Especially during a period of time when Canada is still, in many areas, battling the fourth wave.”

-With files from The Canadian Press