Ontario reports record-high 1,855 new COVID-19 cases - CBC.ca

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Ontario reports record-high 1,855 new COVID-19 cases – CBC.ca

Published

3 years ago

November 27, 2020

Harry Miller

Ontario reported a record-high 1,855 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, with officials saying it will be at least two weeks before lockdowns imposed in Toronto and Peel Region have any tangible effect in the province’s case numbers.

“There’s a been a lot of celebrations over the past couple of weeks,” Ford said, a message echoed by Health Minister Christine Elliott, who added a rise in cases was expected at this point.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Ford also called on the federal government to provide more clarity around when Ontario can expect to receive vaccines — something he says will be key for retired general Rick Hillier, who is leading the provincial vaccine rollout taskforce.

“It was my duty to agree to the premier’s request to lead the task force in this war to defeat COVID-19,” said Hillier. “We will be ready as of December 31, 2020 to receive the vaccine, no matter when it arrives, and to ensure the people of Ontario are vaccinated.

Hillier also acknowledged while there will be bumps in the vaccine’s rollout, and that he believes those most at-risk should receive it first.

Ford calls out anti-lockdown demonstrators

During his news conference, Ford also addressed Kingston-area MPP Randy Hillier’s anti-lockdown demonstration outside Queen’s Park held Thursday.

“I think MPP Randy Hillier is being totally irresponsible,” adding it’s the province’s responsibility to protect Ontarians, even if they are against vaccines or anti-maskers.

The premier went on to call out those protesting outside his home on a near-daily basis, saying neighbours have been being intimidated and threatened.

“You don’t go after people’s neighbours and their families,” he said. “Stop acting like a bunch of buffoons.”

Also Friday, Ontario processed more than 58,000 tests, also a record.

The province’s new cases include 517 in Peel Region, 494 in Toronto, 189 in York Region and 130 in Halton Region.

They push the seven-day average of daily cases to 1,489, the highest it has been since the first confirmed infection was reported in Ontario in late January.

Other public health units that saw double-digit increases were:

Hamilton: 82
Waterloo Region: 74
Durham Region: 65
Ottawa: 55
Windsor-Essex: 52
Simcoe Muskoka: 38
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 27
Niagara: 20
Brant County: 16
Huron Perth: 14
Grey Bruce: 11
Middlesex-London: 10
Haldimand-Norfolk: 10

There are also 122 school-related infections, of which 99 are students and 23 are staff members. There are 671 publicly funded schools in Ontario, or about 14 per cent, with at least one reported instance of COVID-19. Six schools are closed because of outbreaks.

(Note: All of the figures used in this story are found on the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard or in its daily epidemiologic summary. The number of cases for any region may differ from what is reported by the local public health unit, because local units report figures at different times.)

5 regions moving into more restrictive zones

The province also announced five more regions will move into more restrictive zones starting at 12:01 a.m. Monday:

Red-Control
- Windsor-Essex County Health Unit
Orange-Restrict
- Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit
Yellow-Protect
- Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
- Lambton Public Health
- Northwestern Health Unit

There are currently 13,255 confirmed, active cases of the illness provincewide, the most there have been in Ontario since the pandemic began.

The 58,037 test samples processed between 2 p.m. Wednesday and 2 p.m. Thursday is nearly 10,000 more than the previous high, which came on Oct. 8. The province’s network of community, commercial and hospital labs reported a test positivity rate of 3.7 per cent. Public health officials have previously said they hope to build capacity for 100,000 tests daily by mid-December.

Meanwhile, the number of people with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals fell by 15 to 541. Those patients being treated in intensive care stayed steady at 151, while patients being ventilated decreased slightly, by four, to 101.

The province also recorded 20 more deaths linked to the illness, pushing the official death toll 3,595. So far this month, 450 people with COVID-19 have died in Ontario.

Looking for more information about the COVID-19 situation in Ontario? These CBC News stories can help:

What does the latest modelling suggest?

Ontario health officials warn the province remains in a “precarious situation” but has a chance of keeping the daily case rate around the 1,500 mark.

What is the province recommending for the holiday season?

Celebrate only with those in your household, is the guidance coming from the government.

What about for daily life?

In Toronto, where a lockdown is in place, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s medical officer of health, warned residents that COVID-19 is now hitting nearly every neighbourhood hard.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa said “the easier we make it” for COVID-19 to spread, “the worse it gets for people.” 1:20

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Interior Health delivers nearly 800K immunization doses in 2023 – Global News

Published

10 mins ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

Interior Health says it delivered nearly 800,000 immunization doses last year — a number almost equal to the region’s population.

The released figure of 784,980 comes during National Immunization Awareness Week, which runs April 22-30.

The health care organization, which serves a large area of around 820,000, says it’s using the occasion to boost vaccine rates even though there may be post-pandemic vaccine fatigue.

“This is a very important initiative because it ensures that communicable diseases stay away from a region,” said Dr. Silvina Mema of Interior Health.

Click to play video: 'Majority of Canadians view measles as dangerous, not everyone in favour of mandatory vaccine: Poll'

1:59
Majority of Canadians view measles as dangerous, not everyone in favour of mandatory vaccine: Poll

However, not all those doses were for COVID; the tally includes childhood immunizations plus immunizations for adults.

But IHA said immunizations are down from the height of the pandemic, when COVID vaccines were rolled out, though it seems to be on par with previous pre-pandemic years.

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Interior Health says it’d like to see the overall immunization rate rise.

“Certainly there are some folks who have decided a vaccine is not for them. And they have their reasons,” said Jonathan Spence, manager of communicable disease prevention and control at Interior Health.

“I think there’s a lot of people who are hesitant, but that’s just simply because they have questions.

Click to play video: 'Canada sees dwindling measles vaccines supply'

5:25
Canada sees dwindling measles vaccines supply

“And that’s actually part of what we’re celebrating this week is those public health nurses, those pharmacists, who can answer questions and answer questions with really good information around immunization.”

Mima echoed that sentiment.

“We take immunization very seriously. It’s a science-based program that has saved countless lives across the world and eliminated diseases that were before a threat and now we don’t see them anymore,” she said.

“So immunization is very important.”

Health

Remnants of bird flu virus found in pasteurized milk, FDA says

Published

1 hour ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that samples of pasteurized milk had tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows.

The agency stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings “do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers.” Officials added that they’re continuing to study the issue.

“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the FDA said in a statement.

The announcement comes nearly a month after an avian influenza virus that has sickened millions of wild and commercial birds in recent years was detected in dairy cows in at least eight states. The Agriculture Department says 33 herds have been affected to date.

FDA officials didn’t indicate how many samples they tested or where they were obtained. The agency has been evaluating milk during processing and from grocery stores, officials said. Results of additional tests are expected in “the next few days to weeks.”

The PCR lab test the FDA used would have detected viral genetic material even after live virus was killed by pasteurization, or heat treatment, said Lee-Ann Jaykus, an emeritus food microbiologist and virologist at North Carolina State University

“There is no evidence to date that this is infectious virus and the FDA is following up on that,” Jaykus said.

Officials with the FDA and the USDA had previously said milk from affected cattle did not enter the commercial supply. Milk from sick animals is supposed to be diverted and destroyed. Federal regulations require milk that enters interstate commerce to be pasteurized.

Because the detection of the bird flu virus known as Type A H5N1 in dairy cattle is new and the situation is evolving, no studies on the effects of pasteurization on the virus have been completed, FDA officials said. But past research shows that pasteurization is “very likely” to inactivate heat-sensitive viruses like H5N1, the agency added.

Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the International Dairy Foods Association, said that time and temperature regulations for pasteurization ensure that the commercial U.S. milk supply is safe. Remnants of the virus “have zero impact on human health,” he wrote in an email.

Scientists confirmed the H5N1 virus in dairy cows in March after weeks of reports that cows in Texas were suffering from a mysterious malady. The cows were lethargic and saw a dramatic reduction in milk production. Although the H5N1 virus is lethal to commercial poultry, most infected cattle seem to recover within two weeks, experts said.

To date, two people in U.S. have been infected with bird flu. A Texas dairy worker who was in close contact with an infected cow recently developed a mild eye infection and has recovered. In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a Colorado poultry farm. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Canada Falling Short in Adult Vaccination Rates – VOCM

Published

3 hours ago

April 23, 2024

Harry Miller

Canada is about where it should be when it comes to childhood vaccines, but for adult vaccinations it’s a different story.

Dr. Vivien Brown of Immunize Canada says the overall population should have rates of between 80 and 90 per cent for most vaccines, but that is not the case.

She says most children are in that range but not for adult vaccines and ultimately the most at-risk populations are not being reached.

She says the population is under immunized for conditions such as pneumonia, shingles, tetanus, and pertussis.

Brown wants people to talk with their family physician or pharmacist to see if they are up-to-date on vaccines, and to get caught up because many are “killer diseases.”

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