Health

Ontario moving to Step 3 of economic reopening plan five days ahead of schedule, sources confirm – CTV Edmonton

Published

12 months ago

July 10, 2021

Harry Miller

TORONTO —
Ontario will be moving to Step 3 of its economic reopening plan on July 16, nearly five days ahead of schedule, allowing activities such as indoor dining to resume and gyms to open for the first time in months.

The new date was officially announced in a news release around 11:30 a.m. Sources told CTV News Toronto earlier in the day that cabinet met Friday morning to confirm the details.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of our frontline heroes, and the ongoing commitment of Ontarians to get vaccinated, we have surpassed the targets we set in order to enter Step Three of our Roadmap,” Premier Doug Ford said in a statement.

“While this is welcome news for everyone who wants a return to normal, we will not slow down our efforts to fully vaccinate everyone who wants to be and put this pandemic behind us once and for all.”

As of 12:01 a.m. on July 16, retailers will be able to host as many customers as can fit while adhering to physical distancing of two metres.

The same capacity restrictions apply to indoor dining for restaurants, indoor religious services and personal care services. There will be no restrictions on the number of people who can sit at the same table inside a restaurant.

Personal care services involving mask removal will be permitted in Step 3.

Food and drink establishments with dance floors will resume operations with a 25 per cent capacity limit up to a maximum of 250 people.

Cinemas, museums, amusement parks,, gyms and recreational fitness facilities will be allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.

Sport venues will be able to host spectators again at 50 per cent capacity indoors up to 1,000 people and 75 per cent capacity outdoors up to 15,000 people. Contact team sports will be allowed to resume.

Indoor and outdoor event venues, including concert venues, will be able to operate with a capacity restriction of 50 per cent indoors (with a maximum of 1,000 people) and 75 per cent outdoors (up to 5,000 not seated and 15,000 seated).

Social gatherings and organized public events will be restricted to 25 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.

Strip clubs will be permitted to open without capacity limits as long as a two-meter distance can be maintained between customers and a three-metre distance is maintained between patrons and performers.

Bathhouses and sex clubs will be restricted to a 25 per cent capacity limit or a maximum of 250 people.

Face masks will still be required indoors and where physical distancing is not possible.

Speaking at a news conference on Friday afternoon, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said that he does not anticipate any “regulatory requirements to wear masks” in the fall, but said it will be his recommendation that people continue to do so.

“If we can keep COVID-19 under control, my personal advice as the chief medical officer of health to continue wearing a mask. I’ll certainly wear one on the subway, on a bus, on the train throughout this winter to limit my ability to transmit the virus,” he said.

Ontario was originally scheduled to move to Step 3 on July 21.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER STEP 3?

The province will remain in Step 3 for at least 21 days, officials said.

At least 80 per cent of the eligible population aged 12 and up needs to have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 75 per cent should receive their second dose.

Officials say that in order to move forward, no public health unit should have less than 70 per cent of their population fully vaccinated.

“Upon meeting these thresholds, the vast majority of public health and workplace safety measures, including capacity limits for indoor and outdoor settings and limits for social gatherings, will be lifted,” officials said in a news release.

“Only a small number of measures will remain in place, including the requirement for passive screening, such as posting a sign, and businesses requiring a safety plan.”

As of July 8, more than 77 per cent of people in Ontario aged 12 and up have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and more than 50 per cent have received their second dose. This far surpasses the vaccine milestone required to move to Step 3—between 70 to 80 per cent of adults with one dose and 25 per cent with two doses for at least two weeks.

Moore said that the vaccination goals may be an “ambitious target” but will act as a “call to arms to all Ontarians.”

“I think all of us want to have a return to the post-pandemic world, where we try to live with this virus going into the fall and the safest way we can have that occur is to have the highest immunization rate.”

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Health

Quebec COVID-19 hospitalizations rising as new variants gaining ground

Published

9 seconds ago

June 29, 2022

Sonia Ulebor

MONTREAL — Quebec is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations driven by new Omicron subvariants that account for about 75 per cent of infections, the province’s public health director said Wednesday.

Dr. Luc Boileau said the subvariants, such as BA2.12.1, BA.5 and BA.4, appear to be more transmissible than previous strains but not necessarily more severe. The rise in cases was “expected,” though it came earlier than authorities had thought, he said, adding that the number of new infections should continue to rise in the coming days or weeks before declining.

Boileau said the province doesn’t plan on reimposing any broad-level public health restrictions, but he recommended that people who are over 65 or medically vulnerable take precautions such as wearing a mask. He was firm in his advice against a new provincewide masking order, insisting that such a measure was not “realistic” or necessary at this point.

“We’re not at all on a path to reimpose population-level measures such as mask-wearing, or other measures that needed to be taken in the last two years,” he said.

“We’re not there, and we’re not heading in that direction with the current variants.”

He said people who are over the age of 60, who are immunocompromised or who have chronic illnesses should seek a second booster shot if they haven’t had one or if their last shot was more than three months ago. As well, he said those who want to wear masks should be “encouraged” to do so, especially in crowded places.

His update came as COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 34 in the previous 24 hours, after a 113-patient rise the day before. There were 1,260 people in hospital with COVID-19 in Quebec, including 35 in intensive care. Health officials also reported four more deaths associated with the novel coronavirus.

Dr. Don Vinh of the McGill University Health Centre says Quebec is facing a “perfect storm” of factors that include the emergence of new variants, waning immunity from vaccination or previous infection, and the removal of public health restrictions.

The new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, he said in an interview Tuesday, appear to be gaining ground and finding vulnerable people to infect, especially since the mutations seem to be better able to evade immunity compared with previous strains.

“You put the two together, the new variants and waning immunity from either infection, immunization or a hybrid, and what happens is you have a renewed pool of susceptible people with an emerging variant,” he said.

The rise in hospitalizations, he added, comes at a time when the health system is least prepared to handle it.

Hospital workers at “all levels” are overwhelmed, he said, from paramedics and ambulance drivers to ER staff and the community and home care workers who need to be present to care for frail people leaving hospital.

COVID-19 is also putting increased pressure on the system by forcing sick health-care workers to stay home at a time when they’re most needed, he said. “This a catastrophic, systemic failure being unmasked and perhaps even exacerbated by unmitigated community transmission.”

On Wednesday, Boileau said he was concerned with the impact the increase in cases will have on the system, adding that authorities were working with hospitals to readjust services when necessary. He said, however, that he didn’t expect the new rise in cases to get “very, very high” and that the numbers should begin to decline in the next few weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2022.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

Health

Canada extends COVID-19 border measures until Sept. 30, including ArriveCan app

Published

2 hours ago

June 29, 2022

Sonia Ulebor

OTTAWA — The federal government will extend current COVID-19 public health measures for travellers entering Canada, including the use of the ArriveCan app, until at least Sept. 30.

In a release Wednesday, the Public Health Agency of Canada also said it will continue the pause of mandatory random testing for fully vaccinated travellers at all airports until mid-July.

It first announced the pause on June 11 and said in the release that it’s allowing airports to focus on streamlining their operations.

The public health agency said it’s moving forward with plans to relocate COVID-19 testing for air travellers outside of airports to select test provider stores, pharmacies or by virtual appointment.

Mandatory random testing is to continue at land border points of entry with no changes.

The release added that travellers who are not fully vaccinated and don’t have a valid exemption must continue to test on Day 1 and Day 8 of their 14-day quarantine.

“As we move into the next phase of our COVID-19 response, it is important to remember that the pandemic is not over. We must continue to do all that we can to keep ourselves and others safe from the virus,” said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos in a statement.

He also urged people to remain up to date with the recommended vaccinations to ensure they are adequately protected against infection, transmission and severe complications.

“As we have said all along, Canada’s border measures will remain flexible and adaptable, guided by science and prudence.”

All travellers will have to continue to use the ArriveCan app or website to provide their travel information within 72 hours before their arrival in Canada or before boarding a cruise ship destined for the country. The government said 95 per cent of land and air travellers are using the app and it’s taking steps to enhance compliance.

The government also said moving testing outside of airports will allow Canada to adjust to increased traveller volumes while still being able to monitor and quickly respond to new variants of concern or changes to the epidemiological situation.

It said border testing has been essential in helping Canada slow the spread of the virus, as data from the tests are used to understand the current level and trends of importation of COVID-19 into the country.

The testing program also allows for detection and identification of new COVID-19 variants of concern, it said.

Tourism groups and border-community mayors and MPs have called on the government to ease restrictions and scrap the ArriveCan app, saying the measures are limiting cross-border travel.

Transport Minister Randy Boissonnault said the government is deeply invested in growing Canada’s visitor economy.

“From our reputation as a safe travel destination to our world-class attractions and wide-open spaces, Canada has it all and we are ready to welcome back domestic and international tourists, while prioritizing their safety and well-being.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Health

Western researchers use MRI to learn cause of long-COVID symptoms – BlackburnNews.com

Published

7 hours ago

June 29, 2022

Harry Miller

Western researchers use MRI to learn cause of long-COVID symptoms

File photo of woman coughing. Photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / HighwayStarz

By Ruby Sweeney
June 29, 2022 7:30am

A study led by researchers at Western University has revealed the cause of long-COVID symptoms.

New data published by Western professor Grace Parraga and the LIVECOVIDFREE study, based out of five centres in Ontario, is the largest MRI study of patients with long-COVID. The term long-COVID refers to symptoms of brain fog, breathlessness, fatigue and feeling limited while doing everyday things, often lasting weeks and months post-infection.

This is the first study to show a potential cause of long-COVID, which has helped physicians in the study target treatment for the patients.

“I think it is always a conundrum when someone has symptoms, but you can’t identify the problem,” said Parraga, a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Lung Imaging to Transform Outcomes at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. “If you can’t identify the problem, you can’t identify solutions.”

By using MRI imaging with inhaled xenon gas, researchers have identified that the symptoms are caused by microscopic abnormalities that affect how oxygen is exchanged from the lungs to the red blood cells.

Researchers used the technology to watch the function of the 300-500 million tiny alveolar sacs, which are about 1/5 of a millimetre in diameter and responsible for bringing oxygen to the blood.

“What we saw on the MRI was that the transition of the oxygen into the red blood cells was depressed in these symptomatic patients who had had COVID-19, compared to healthy volunteers,” Parraga said.

Further CT scans pointed to ‘abnormal trimming’ of the vascular tree, which indicated an impact on the tiny blood vessels that deliver red blood cells to the alveoli to be oxygenated.

Parraga said the study showed no difference in severity between patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 and those who recovered without hospitalization. She said this is an important finding as the latest wave of COVID-19 has affected many people who did not receive hospital-based care.

To conduct the study, researchers recruited patients suspected to be suffering from long-COVID from London Health Sciences Centre’s Urgent COVID-19 Care Clinic and St. Joseph’s Health Care London’s Post-Acute COVID-19 Program. Some participants experienced persistent shortness of breath more than six weeks post-infection, while others were still symptomatic after 35 weeks.

One of the participants is Alex Kopacz, a London-native and Canadian Olympic bobsleigh gold-medalist, who called his experience with COVID-19 “harrowing” and believed the virus would not affect him long-term as he is a young athlete.

“I was on oxygen for almost two months after COVID, and it took me almost three months to get to a place where I could go for a walk without gasping for air,” Kopacz said. “The take home message for me is that we have to remember that this virus can have very serious long-term consequences, which are not trivial.”

Researchers are now conducting a one-year follow-up to better understand these results.

The study was done in collaboration with researchers outside of London at Lakehead University, McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University and Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.