EDMONTON —
With nearly 750 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, the province has finalized plans for Canadian Red Cross to set up an “alternate care centre,” or tent hospital, at the University of Alberta’s Butterdome.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Wednesday the facility would create 100 more inpatient beds if needed, but that there were no plans to staff the site as of yet.
“This is a purely precautionary measure for use if needed in the future.”
The tent hospital will take several weeks to set up, Hinshaw said.
The Butterdome was used as an assessment centre in the spring.
The province confirmed 1,270 new cases of COVID-19 over some 17,500 tests in 24 hours.
Its positivity rate has dropped to 7.3 per cent, although 749 people remain in hospital with the disease. Of those, 139 are receiving intensive care.
Alberta’s top doctor also reported 16 new deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the total death tally since March to 760.
“It is a sobering statistic that in less than 10 months, more Albertans have died from COVID-19 than have died from influenza in the last 10 years combined.”
While Hinshaw said no demographic is the sole reason cases in the province rose, she reminded the public that it does affect every age group – including young adults who aren’t even the most vulnerable.
“In Alberta to date, more than 32,000 people between the ages of 20 and 39 have contracted COVID-19. More than 380 of them have been hospitalized. And sadly, eight of these have died,” she said. “To put this in perspective, if you gathered every Albertan between the ages of 20 and 39 who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, they would fill the Saddledome in Calgary, the Centrium in Red Deer and the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge.”
HOW VACCINE ROLLOUT WILL WORK
With the first 3,900 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses already administered in the province, and another 25,350 to arrive next week, Hinshaw took several minutes to reassure Albertans it had gone through rigorous checks at both the provincial and federal level.
Respiratory therapists, ICU staff and physicians, and long-term care and supportive living staff of designated facilities were among the first immunized.
Some of the 25,350 doses arriving next will be kept to be administered as the second dose for those who received the vaccine this week. The rest will be given to priority health care workers across the province. As the province is given the green light to transport the vaccine – which needs to be refrigerated at ultra-cold temperatures – it will look at immunizing residents of long-term and supportive living facilities.
As the first months of the new year go on, the vaccine will be available to more health care workers like home care staff and ER workers. In part ‘B’ of the first rollout phase, any Albertan aged 75 or older will be offered the vaccine, as well as those aged 65 or older on First Nations and Metis settlements, and workers in COVID-19 wards. The focus, Hinshaw said, will be people at highest risk of severe outcomes of contracting COVID-19 and the people who care for them or who are in shortest supply across the health care system.
Hinshaw said the second phase of rollout could include first responders and frontline professionals as soon as April, but that those specific groups would be decided in the new year.
“As more vaccine is available and as potentially new vaccines are licensed, we may be able to shift those dates, if things move more quickly than anticipated. But at this point, that is our anticipated timeline.”
She confirmed some “groups” have requested expedited access. Alberta Health would be considering their services when it made decisions for Phase 2, Hinshaw said.
Hinshaw urged Albertans to get immunized when a vaccine is available to the general public.
“There is overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccination is the best defense against serious infections. We’re taking every precaution, and acting on clear evidence showing this vaccine is safe for Albertans, and it works.
“When it is your turn, please get immunized. There’s an act of kindness for yourself, for your loved ones and for your community.”
VANCOUVER – Mayors and other leaders from several British Columbia communities say the provincial and federal governments need to take “immediate action” to tackle mental health and public safety issues that have reached crisis levels.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says it’s become “abundantly clear” that mental health and addiction issues and public safety have caused crises that are “gripping” Vancouver, and he and other politicians, First Nations leaders and law enforcement officials are pleading for federal and provincial help.
In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier David Eby, mayors say there are “three critical fronts” that require action including “mandatory care” for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The letter says senior governments also need to bring in “meaningful bail reform” for repeat offenders, and the federal government must improve policing at Metro Vancouver ports to stop illicit drugs from coming in and stolen vehicles from being exported.
Sim says the “current system” has failed British Columbians, and the number of people dealing with severe mental health and addiction issues due to lack of proper care has “reached a critical point.”
Vancouver Police Chief Adam Palmer says repeat violent offenders are too often released on bail due to a “revolving door of justice,” and a new approach is needed to deal with mentally ill people who “pose a serious and immediate danger to themselves and others.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024
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.
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.
