Four new cases of the novel coronavirus have been confirmed locally in London-Middlesex Saturday, one day after zero new cases were reported.
According to the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), the new cases bring the region’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 495, which includes 48 deaths.
The death count has stayed the same compared to the day before, but the number of recoveries rose by six to 363.
As of Saturday, 458 of the region’s cases have been reported in London, where all four new cases were confirmed.
Elsewhere, there have been 20 cases in Strathroy-Caradoc, seven in Middlesex Centre, four in North Middlesex, four in Thames Centre and one each in Lucan-Biddulph and Southwest Middlesex.
It’s unclear how many cases remain active in each location.
A chart from the MLHU showing the number of cases in London and Middlesex by reported date, Jan. 24 to May 22, 2020.
Middlesex-London Health Unit
Around 20 per cent of the region’s cases have involved hospitalizations, including 5.66 per cent who have been admitted to intensive care.
A total of 17 COVID-19 patients were being treated in University and Victoria hospitals as of midnight Friday, according to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC).
The number of active outbreaks remains unchanged at seven, all of which are at local long-term care and retirement homes.
The most recent outbreak was declared on Wednesday at Henley Place, a long-term care home in London. It’s the second outbreak to be declared at the home, after an outbreak that was active from March 28 until May 17.
A chart from MLHU showing the number of cases in London and Middlesex by association with a long-term care home, retirement home, or other, Jan. 24 to May 22, 2020.
Middlesex-London Health Unit
Outbreaks remain active at Country Terrace, Mount Hope Centre for Long-Term Care (St. Mary’s 5th Floor), Waverly Mansion, Sisters of St. Joseph, Meadow Park Care Centre and Kensington Village (LTCH).
As of Saturday, 98 cases have been reported in long-term care homes involving 58 residents and 40 staff members, while 63 cases have been reported in retirement homes involving 43 residents and 20 staff members. Twenty-one deaths have been reported at long-term care homes, and seven at retirement homes. These numbers remain unchanged from Friday.
At least 41 staff members at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) have tested positive during the pandemic, a figure that remains unchanged from its previous update on Wednesday. It’s not clear how many cases have resolved and where the staff worked within LHSC.
Provincially, Ontario reported 412 new cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday morning, bringing the total number of cases in the province to 25,040.
The death toll increased by 27 to 2,048.
Over 19,100 cases are considered resolved, which makes up 76.5 per cent of all confirmed cases.
Just over 11,000 additional tests have been conducted, and around 5,900 cases are under investigation.
Nationally, Canada is seeing a total of 82,881 cases with 412 more Saturday, the death count rose by 27 to 6,277, and the number of recoveries increased by 379 to 42,986.
Elgin and Oxford
Numbers related to COVID-19 remain unchanged in the region compared to Friday, according to health officials.
The total number of COVID-19 cases sits at 71, with 57 recoveries — about 80 per cent — and four deaths.
Southwestern Public Health (SWPH) also announced an outbreak declared earlier this week at a long-term care facility in Ingersoll had worsened, with an additional six staff members having since tested positive.
In total, seven staff have been confirmed positive at Secord Trails Care Community as of Saturday morning. The outbreak was declared on May 18.
No residents have tested positive at the facility, according to SWPH.
The outbreak at Secord Trails is one of three to be declared in the region. The other two, at Beattie Manor and Caressant Care Bonnie Place, have since been resolved.
A chart from SWPH showing the per cent positivity rate of coronavirus tests in the region, April 3 to May 22, 2020.
Southwestern Public Health
Ten cases remain active in SWPH jurisdiction, nine of them in Oxford County, including four in Ingersoll, two in Tillsonburg and Woodstock, and one in East Zorra-Tavistock.
One is located in Elgin County in Malahide, according to the health unit.
As of Saturday, 3,983 tests had been administered in Elgin and Oxford counties. Of those, 259 were awaiting results.
Huron and Perth
No new cases, recoveries or deaths have been reported in Huron and Perth counties, health officials said Saturday.
This keeps the total number of confirmed cases at 50, of which 44 have recovered and five have died.
The region’s lone active case was reported on Thursday. It was the first time a case had been reported by the health unit in nearly three weeks.
A chart from HPPH showing cumulative totals of COVID-19 cases, deaths, and recoveries from early March to May 22, 2020. The health unit notes the graph uses symptom onset date for cumulative confirmed cases. If the person does not have symptoms, the date of the swab test is used.
HPPH
Health officials say the new case involves a resident of Maitland Manor, a long-term care home in Goderich, which has declared an outbreak — the region’s seventh and only active outbreak.
The resident is in stable condition and contract tracing is ongoing, the health unit said in a statement Friday.
Six other outbreaks have been declared over.
Nearly half of all cases reported in Huron and Perth, 23, are linked to the outbreaks, health unit figures show.
Of the region’s five deaths, four have been linked to the resolved outbreak at Greenwood Court in Stratford. The home saw 10 staff infections and six resident infections.
Stratford itself has seen 25 of the region’s reported cases.
As of Saturday, the health unit says 2,707 tests have been administered in Huron and Perth. Of those, 88 were awaiting test results.
Sarnia and Lambton
According to regional health officials, one more person has died due to COVID-19 and two more have tested positive. The number of recoveries remains unchanged.
As of late Friday night, the area is seeing 245 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, with 20 deaths and 173 recoveries — about 71 per cent of cases.
One of the cases is linked to Vision Nursing Home, a long-term care facility in Sarnia, which has had an active outbreak of COVID-19 since April 23.
It’s the fourth day in a row that cases have been confirmed at the facility, which has now seen a total of 20 residents and 19 staff test positive — one more from the day before.
Four residents of this facility have also died.
A chart from Lambton Public Health showing the number of confirmed cases in the county by reported date, March 24 to May 22, 2020.
Lambton Public Health
The facility is home to one of three active outbreaks.
The other two, at Marshall Gowland Manor and Village on the St. Clair, have seen one resident test positive and two residents test positive, respectively. Both outbreaks were declared active on May 15.
It’s unclear how many cases linked to the three outbreaks remain active.
Three other outbreaks at Landmark Village, Lambton Meadowview Villa and Sumac Lodge have since been declared over
Landmark Village remains the worst outbreak to be seen in the county, with 30 resident and 10 staff cases, and six resident deaths. It was declared over May 6.
Health unit figures show long-term care and retirement home residents make up nearly a quarter of all cases, 22 per cent, while health-care workers make up 17 per cent.
Sarnia’s Bluewater Health was treating five confirmed COVID-19 patients as of Saturday morning, in addition to eight patients who were suspected positive or awaiting tests — eight less from Friday.
— With files from Global News’ Ryan Rocca and Matthew Trevithick
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.
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.
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.
