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COVID-19: Start to Vancouver cruise season in limbo over coronavirus concerns – Vancouver Sun

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Federal health officials are still weighing information and the Public Health Agency of Canada “remains prepared for any public health events aboard cruise ships.”

At Sanjay Goel’s Cruise Connections, agents are handling as many calls from customers cancelling trips as they are for booking trips, less than a month before Vancouver’s cruise ship season is set to begin.

“It’s the busiest time of our year,” said CEO Sanjay Goel, whose firm handles some 10,000 cruise bookings a year, “we should be going crazy making new bookings, not dealing with cancellations.”

However, with public health officials recommending that Canadians avoid cruise travel and Princess Cruises’ Grand Princess, which had a COVID-19 outbreak with 21 people falling sick, due to kick off Vancouver’s season on April 2, it remains unclear whether it will start as scheduled.

As of Tuesday, officials were still mulling the possibilities, a day after B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, requested Ottawa delay the season.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is still “actively monitoring the situation regarding COVID-19,” according to an emailed statement from Eric Morrissette, the agency’s chief of media relations, and “remains prepared for any public health events aboard cruise ships.”

At the Port of Vancouver, vice-president of operations Peter Xotta said the port authority “will await direction from these authorities,” with any decisions about the season contingent on advice from Ottawa.

Hanging in the balance, however, is a business worth some $3 million in spending every time a ship docks in the city, according to economic impact reports.

“It’s slower than normal right now for sure,” said Brian Simmons, part owner of the Jade boutique on Water Street in Gastown, who saw business drop off during travel restrictions during the Lunar New Year. “And it’s such an unknown with what’s going to happen, it’s definitely worrisome.”

Simmons said shops in the tourist district watch the cruise calendar closely and can expect bigger boosts in foot traffic the day before and the day after the big ships dock.

“Days with 2,000-passenger ships versus 1,500 passengers are definitely better for us,” Simmons said, and he can envision shortening hours without the prospect of those events.

However, there is also hope that some of that business would be replaced by tourists staying closer to home, Simmons said.

The cruise industry’s last economic impact analysis estimated that B.C.’s cruise-related tourism was worth $2.2 billion to the province in 2016 with $982 million of that in direct spending including $359 million by passengers on room nights, meals, excursions and other shopping, according to the trade group Cruise Lines International Association.

“We know there’s going to be an impact for sure,” said Ted Lee, acting CEO at Tourism Vancouver, “but we really don’t have anything specific and do not want to speculate as well.”

“While there is a public health issue that we all need to be a part of, I think we need to keep things in perspective,” Lee said, noting that Vancouver and Canada “remain a low-risk destination.”

As for cruise ships, Health Canada’s assessment is that the close contact between passengers poses a risk for the rapid spread of infectious diseases, but the industry said its member cruise lines have put in place enhanced screening and beefed up cleaning and disinfection.

“Do I think (the health officials’ warnings) are warranted,” Goel said. “I would respectfully say no, at this point in time.”

depenner@postmedia.com

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Some Ontario docs now offering RSV shot to infants with Quebec rollout set for Nov.

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Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.

The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.

Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.

Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.

The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

-With files from Nicole Ireland

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Polio is rising in Pakistan ahead of a new vaccination campaign

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.

Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.

The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.

Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.

The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.

The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.

Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.

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White House says health insurance needs to fully cover condoms, other over-the-counter birth control

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.

Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.

The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.

“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”

The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”

Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.

If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.

Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.

The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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