COVID-19 update for Sept. 9: Here's the latest on coronavirus in B.C. - Standard Freeholder | Canada News Media
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COVID-19 update for Sept. 9: Here's the latest on coronavirus in B.C. – Standard Freeholder

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4 years ago

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Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for Sept. 9, 2020.

Here’s your daily update with everything you need to know on the novel coronavirus situation in B.C. for Sept. 9, 2020.

We’ll provide summaries of what’s going on in B.C. right here so you can get the latest news at a glance. This page will be updated regularly throughout the day, with developments added as they happen.

Check back here for more updates throughout the day.

CASE SUMMARY

As of the latest figures given on Sept. 9:
• Total number of confirmed cases: 6,691 (1,378 active)
• New cases since Sept. 8: 100
• Hospitalized cases: 37
• Intensive care: 15
• COVID-19 related deaths: 213
• Cases under public health monitoring: 3,101
• Long-term care and assisted-living homes, and acute care facilities currently affected: 15

IN-DEPTH: COVID-19: Here are all the B.C. cases of the novel coronavirus

GUIDES AND LINKS

• COVID-19: Here’s everything you need to know about the novel coronavirus

• COVID-19: Have you been exposed? Here are all B.C. public health alerts

• COVID-19: Avoid these hand sanitizers that are recalled in Canada

• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool

• COVID-19: Here’s where to get tested in Metro Vancouver

LATEST UPDATES

3 p.m. – Two new health-care facility outbreaks reported in B.C. as active cases rise

There have been 100 new cases of COVID-19 reported in British Columbia over the past day and no deaths.

There are now 1,378 active cases of the disease in the province, with 37 of those cases being treated in hospital including 15 in intensive care. There have been 213 COVID-related deaths so far in B.C.

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said there were 3,101 people in self-isolation after being potentially exposed to the disease.

Henry said there had fresh outbreaks at two health-care facilities – the Royal Arch Masonic Home long-term care facility in Vancouver and the Milieu Children and Family Services Society community living facility in the Fraser Health region. This is the second outbreak at the Royal Arch Masonic home, with the first one leading to 12 deaths. There are 13 cases at the Milieu group home.

Sixteen of the 100 new cases reported on Wednesday were in health-care facilities, including 10 staff.

1:15 p.m. – B.C. plans to keep hospitals open, surgeries booked, during fall surge

B.C. is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to boost the health-care system this fall in an attempt to keep hospitals open for normal admissions, surgeries and ordinary influenza patients, while also handling a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Premier John Horgan unveiled the plan Wednesday, built upon an analysis of B.C.’s traditional winter influenza demands matched to a range of pandemic predictions.

In the worst-case scenario, the province says it has enough beds and ventilators to handle as many as double the COVID-19 cases seen during the peak periods from March to May, on top of regular hospital demands and flu cases.

The fall plan is underpinned by several changes to B.C.’s policies so far, including a shift from a province-wide health-care response used when the pandemic began in March, toward a regional approach that health officials said could be narrowed down to individual communities based on potential surges around the province.

8 a.m. – B.C. education Minister Rob Fleming answers your back-to-school questions

As students head back to school, we asked parents what questions they have for Education Minister Rob Fleming. In an exclusive interview, the minister responds.

Q: If B.C. is on the brink of an increase in COVID-19 infections, are you confident you can welcome kids back to school safely?

Fleming: Yes, we are because we have a well-thought-out plan, but one that changes a lot of things that we are used to in school. The new normal has a number of layers of protection. Provincial and federal COVID-19-specific funding helps pay for those things, whether it’s remote learning options for kids who are not returning to school or making in-class instruction safer by having hand-washing stations and hand sanitizer, staggered breaks, and keeping kids in smaller learning groups.

Click HERE to read the full interview.

8 a.m. – First Nation in Powell River, B.C., declares emergency after COVID-19 outbreak

A Powell River-area First Nation has issued a state of emergency after confirmation that four members have COVID-19 and several others are reporting symptoms of the virus.

A notice on the Tla’amin Nation website says residents have been ordered to shelter in place to slow the spread of the virus while health officials complete contact tracing.

The order affecting the community took effect late Tuesday afternoon and advised members they should stay where the are for the next 72 hours.

Access to the First Nation has also been restricted to a single entry point and parents are being urged to keep children out of school this week.

A letter from Vancouver Coastal Health says contact with the virus likely occurred during a wake on Sept. 3 or a funeral the following day in Powell River.

12 a.m. – Vancouver mayor calls special meeting to address needs of homeless during COVID

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is calling a special council meeting Friday to address proposals to deal with what he is calling emergency COVID-19 relief for the homeless problem impacting the city.

The mayor has put forward a motion with three options, including leasing or buying housing units including hotels, single-room occupancy residences and other available housing stock, establishing a temporary emergency relief encampment on vacant public or private lands and/or temporarily converting city-owned buildings into emergency housing or shelter.

12 a.m. – B.C. nightclubs and banquet halls shuttered and no late night booze sales

Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has ordered all nightclubs and banquet halls closed, no late night booze sales and no loud party noise, as active cases of COVID-19 rise.

On Tuesday, Henry reported 429 cases of COVID-19 in B.C. over the last four days, and two deaths.

She said there were 1,386 active cases of COVID-19, of which 32 were being treated in hospital, including 12 in intensive care. There are 3,063 cases being monitored by health authorities after being exposed to the virus.

The two deaths had occurred at long-term care facilities in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions. There are 14 active cases in health-care settings.

Henry said changes had to be made to combat the rising cases. People aged 20-29 make up the bulk of new cases among the age groups from zero to 100.

6 a.m. – Thousands of Canadian students return to schools as new COVID-19 cases emerge

Multiple provinces reported COVID-19 cases linked to schools just as thousands more students returned to class Tuesday, raising fears over what’s in store for a segment of the population largely sheltered from exposure over the past six months.

The fallout from earlier openings in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec cast a shadow over giddy reunions and hopes for a quick return to normal as more elementary, junior and high school students tested pandemic precautions that have touched nearly every aspect of school life, from the lunchroom to the playground.

Support Our Students Alberta, a non-partisan, non-profit public education advocacy group, released an online tracker for kindergarten to Grade 12 schools that suggested 22 schools have had cases since reopening a week ago.

Opposition NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman said there were at least 20 COVID-19 cases in schools, with 16 of those infections reported since Friday.

“This is a very disturbing trend just days into the school year,” Hoffman told a news conference.

Alberta Health Services said it was compiling a list of schools with confirmed cases. None of the schools have declared outbreaks and all remained open.

In Ottawa, officials told 193 students and seven staff to stay home after linking them to novel coronavirus infections.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

LOCAL RESOURCES

Here are a number of information and landing pages for COVID-19 from various health and government agencies.

• B.C. COVID-19 Symptom Self-Assessment Tool

• Vancouver Coastal Health – Information on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

• HealthLink B.C. – Coronavirus (COVID-19) information page

• B.C. Centre for Disease Control – Novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

• Government of Canada – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Outbreak update

• World Health Organization – Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak

–with files from The Canadian Press

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Canada to donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to combat mpox outbreaks in Africa

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1 day ago

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September 13, 2024

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The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.

It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.

Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”

Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.

Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.

On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.

Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”

But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”

“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.

Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.

Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.

Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.

“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.

“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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How many Nova Scotians are on the doctor wait-list? Number hit 160,000 in June

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3 days ago

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September 11, 2024

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Newfoundland and Labrador monitoring rise in whooping cough cases: medical officer

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4 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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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.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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