Health
Ontario asymptomatic testing program finds 57 COVID cases so far in more than 4,500 tests to date in Toronto, Peel, York, Ottawa – Toronto Star
Ontario’s asymptomatic COVID-19 school testing program has so far found 57 cases after more than 3,600 tests in hot spots in Toronto, York, Peel and Ottawa, the Star has learned.
Almost half of those COVID cases were at one Toronto school, Thorncliffe Park Public School, which closed earlier this month after 26 were uncovered through the voluntary testing introduced by the government late last month.
The province is awaiting results on an additional 890 swabs, for a total of 4,544 tests conducted.
That means that so far, the positivity rate is less than two per cent, said a government source.
“It underscores what doctors have said all along: students aren’t getting COVID-19 in schools, they bring it into schools from the community,” said the source.
“Put this into perspective — in the highest-risk regions, with the highest rates of positivity, we have not seen asymptomatic spread.”
The province plans to expand the program, a first in the country, in the new year, as opposition critics continue to push for much more widespread testing in schools.
New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles, her party’s education critic and a former Toronto school board trustee, said until there is mass testing, “we are not going to have a handle on what we are dealing with.”
Amid rising cases in the community, the government sent a memo to boards advising them to prepare for online learning in case a quick switchover is needed.
Stiles, however, said the government needs to do more.
“Open or closed is not a plan,” she said. “Kids will be back at school” at some point, and the government needs to decrease class sizes, among other things, to allay families’ fears.
“The parents I have spoken to are very worried and upset about it,” she said.
Green party Leader Mike Schreiner urged Premier Doug Ford to “make the call now for an extended winter break for schools, so parents and educators can plan. And provide supports for parents who need to take time off or find child-care options during that time. Use the extended break to improve ventilation in schools and to reduce class sizes to ensure safe physical distancing when students return to school.”
At a press conference Thursday, Ford was asked about further lockdown measures, including the possibility of remote learning for students after the holiday break.
“Everything is on the table,” he said. “And if we do move forward and decide to do a further lockdown there are a lot of things to take into consideration. There’s the education, making sure that we have daycare, making sure the educators are ready … having hotels for people that have COVID, that we can put them into hotels instead of at home. We have to make sure that we have something for the businesses.”
Ford also said Education Minister Stephen Lecce “has put the schools on notice as well. So it’s all hands on deck. We have to be ready for anything. And the trend is moving at a rapid, rapid fashion right now. So we’re going to be ready.”
As of Thursday, Ontario reported an additional 170 COVID cases among students and staff in all public schools, for a total of just over 7,000 since classes began in September. Some 955 schools, out of the province’s 4,828 have reported cases, or roughly one in five.
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Meanwhile, a new memo to Toronto District School Board principals and vice-principals has raised concerns about reporting of cases and transparency over the holidays.
It says that “during the winter break, schools are NOT required to report cases to (the board’s) Occupational Health and Safety or the Ministry’s Go Secure website. Reporting of positive cases will resume as per the TDSB COVID-19 Response Plan on Monday, January 4.”
The memo, obtained by the Star, said that “in line with the Ministry of Education, the TDSB COVID-19 Advisories website will NOT be updated during the winter break, however any recommendation from (Toronto Public Health) for staff and/or students to self isolate will continue to be communicated to directly-impacted classes only.”
Health
RCMP warn about benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl tied to overdose in Alberta – Edmonton Journal
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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.
The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.
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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.
The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.
Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”
From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.
Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.
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Health
CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture
The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.
Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.
The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.
Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.
As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.
This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.
Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.
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Health
Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star
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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.
By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.
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