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The Ontario government recently announced a decision to ease COVID-19 restrictions sooner than anticipated, but Sudbury’s health unit is still urging residents to remain cautious.
‘What we don’t want to see is the numbers going back up’
The Ontario government recently announced a decision to ease COVID-19 restrictions sooner than anticipated, but Sudbury’s health unit is still urging residents to remain cautious.
A spokesperson for Public Health Sudbury and Districts said the health unit will continue to monitor the situation locally, and additional restrictions could be imposed if they are deemed necessary.
That’s why Burgess Hawkins, a manager in the health protection division, said that the “personal choices” of residents when it comes to preventing the spread of COVID-19 will be vital in the coming weeks.
As capacity limits at restaurants and gyms are lifted and Ontario looks towards ending proof of vaccination requirements, the health unit continues to recommend getting vaccinated against COVID-19 and practising public health measures such as masking and social distancing.
“I can’t foresee the future, but the provincial indicators are dropping – including hospitalization levels and the number of people in intensive care units,” said Hawkins when asked about whether the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end.
“At the moment, there appears to be a drop in the level of COVID-19 in general both within the province and locally in the health unit’s service area.”
Hawkins said the province made the decision to lift COVID-19 restrictions “based on the data that’s out there.”
“That decision is made based on what the advisory panels are determining based on the risk level and what’s happening with the virus. In our care, we will continue to watch our local indicators,” he said.
“If there’s something that needs to be done where we feel that additional restrictions will be needed in the future, then our Medical Officer of Health has the ability to implement those through a Letter of Instruction or a Section 22 Order.”
On Feb. 17, the Ontario government implemented the first step of its reopening plan.
Social gathering limits increased to 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors, and organized events are now allowed to host 50 people indoors with no outdoor limit.
Capacity limits were also lifted in certain indoor public spaces that require proof of vaccination, including food and drink establishments (without dance facilities), gyms, cinemas, meeting and event spaces, and gaming establishments like casinos.
The seating capacity at sporting events, concert venues, and theatres was capped at 50 per cent, and nightclubs and restaurants where there is dancing are capped at 25 per cent.
There is no limit on capacity at indoor weddings, funerals, or religious services, rites or ceremonies if the location opts in to proof of vaccination requirements.
If they don’t, the capacity is limited to the number of people who can maintain a two-metre distance.
Youth aged 12 to 17 also became eligible to receive booster doses of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday.
The Ford government also said that it could ease proof of COVID-19 vaccination requirements at many settings as soon as March 1.
Hawkins said that as the province moves towards reopening and recovery, it’s important to keep in mind how certain public health measures have had a positive impact on communities.
“Take masking, for example. We may get to the point where the mask requirement is no longer there, but masks still provide protection,” he said.
“The health unit will still agree with mask use because we have seen its impact not only with COVID-19, but also with other numbers for last year.”
He said that case numbers for flu and colds saw a marked decrease in 2021 in part due to the public health measures in place due to COVID-19.
“We know the vaccine has no impact on those numbers because these are different diseases. It’s because people were wearing masks and washing their hands,” he said.
“We will still be promoting general public health measures.”
Public Health will also be providing support to businesses and continuing to encourage practices like enhanced cleaning and disinfecting and asking employees to stay home if they are sick.
“Most of these things are not new. People just became more aware of them during the pandemic, but we’ve been encouraging things like hand washing forever,” said Hawkins.
“Because of the pandemic, we now know that these practices have a direct impact on disease.”
Public Health Sudbury on Thursday released its COVID-19 pandemic recovery plan.
The plan highlights the agency’s top priorities for recovery, including reinstating many of the programs and services that were temporarily paused as it focused its efforts on pandemic response.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Penny Sutcliffe said in a board meeting that about 80 per cent of the health unit’s resources were redirected over the past two years to control the pandemic, resulting in a substantial backlog.
The health unit plans to focus on areas where it can help those disproportionately affected by the pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions.
“We are still going to continue the vaccination programs moving forward, but we are also starting to look at ways to get the health unit going again,” said Hawkins.
“It’s not whether we are doing one or the other – we’re trying to do both. I don’t think we will be 100 per cent operational by March, but we are in the planning stages at this point.”
Public Health continues to urge residents to get their third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine if they are eligible and to make personal decisions that will keep COVID-19 case counts down.
“What we don’t want to see is the numbers going back up. If you think about last September, the indicators were way down. A lot of people thought we’d beaten this thing,” said Hawkins.
“Then the numbers went through the roof, and that was before Omicron. Health measures will be extremely important to ensure the numbers don’t swing back up again. Nobody wants to see that.”
The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.
dmacdonald@postmedia.com
Twitter: @SudburyStar
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LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
The Canadian Paediatric Society says doctors should regularly screen children for reading difficulties and dyslexia, calling low literacy a “serious public health concern” that can increase the risk of other problems including anxiety, low self-esteem and behavioural issues, with lifelong consequences.
New guidance issued Wednesday says family doctors, nurses, pediatricians and other medical professionals who care for school-aged kids are in a unique position to help struggling readers access educational and specialty supports, noting that identifying problems early couldhelp kids sooner — when it’s more effective — as well as reveal other possible learning or developmental issues.
The 10 recommendations include regular screening for kids aged four to seven, especially if they belong to groups at higher risk of low literacy, including newcomers to Canada, racialized Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. The society says this can be done in a two-to-three-minute office-based assessment.
Other tips encourage doctors to look for conditions often seen among poor readers such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; to advocate for early literacy training for pediatric and family medicine residents; to liaise with schools on behalf of families seeking help; and to push provincial and territorial education ministries to integrate evidence-based phonics instruction into curriculums, starting in kindergarten.
Dr. Scott McLeod, one of the authors and chair of the society’s mental health and developmental disabilities committee, said a key goal is to catch kids who may be falling through the cracks and to better connect families to resources, including quicker targeted help from schools.
“Collaboration in this area is so key because we need to move away from the silos of: everything educational must exist within the educational portfolio,” McLeod said in an interview from Calgary, where he is a developmental pediatrician at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“Reading, yes, it’s education, but it’s also health because we know that literacy impacts health. So I think that a statement like this opens the window to say: Yes, parents can come to their health-care provider to get advice, get recommendations, hopefully start a collaboration with school teachers.”
McLeod noted that pediatricians already look for signs of low literacy in young children by way of a commonly used tool known as the Rourke Baby Record, which offers a checklist of key topics, such as nutrition and developmental benchmarks, to cover in a well-child appointment.
But he said questions about reading could be “a standing item” in checkups and he hoped the society’s statement to medical professionals who care for children “enhances their confidence in being a strong advocate for the child” while spurring partnerships with others involved in a child’s life such as teachers and psychologists.
The guidance said pediatricians also play a key role in detecting and monitoring conditions that often coexist with difficulty reading such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, but McLeod noted that getting such specific diagnoses typically involves a referral to a specialist, during which time a child continues to struggle.
He also acknowledged that some schools can be slow to act without a specific diagnosis from a specialist, and even then a child may end up on a wait list for school interventions.
“Evidence-based reading instruction shouldn’t have to wait for some of that access to specialized assessments to occur,” he said.
“My hope is that (by) having an existing statement or document written by the Canadian Paediatric Society … we’re able to skip a few steps or have some of the early interventions present,” he said.
McLeod added that obtaining specific assessments from medical specialists is “definitely beneficial and advantageous” to know where a child is at, “but having that sort of clear, thorough assessment shouldn’t be a barrier to intervention starting.”
McLeod said the society was partly spurred to act by 2022’s “Right to Read Inquiry Report” from the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which made 157 recommendations to address inequities related to reading instruction in that province.
He called the new guidelines “a big reminder” to pediatric providers, family doctors, school teachers and psychologists of the importance of literacy.
“Early identification of reading difficulty can truly change the trajectory of a child’s life.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2024.
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