In London, Ont., a long line of cars was seen waiting outside the city’s only open assessment centre on Sunday. Some were families getting checked because they wanted to ensure they were beginning the school year free of COVID-19, especially as their social bubbles were about to expand with the addition of their kids’ classmates. Others said they were getting tested as a precaution as the university school year gets underway.
Testing issues have also been reported in St. John’s, with local mother Flora Salvo saying she spent four days on the phone trying to book a COVID-19 test and that the reservation system needs to be revamped. She said the painfully slow process of getting tested — from her first call to when she received a negative result last Saturday — stretched over a full week.
In Ottawa, health authorities are hiring more staff and training them so that an assessment centre can accept patients over 12 hours per day, seven days a week — four more hours per day than it is normally open. And in B.C., the province was already expanding its COVID-19 testing capacity from 8,000 to 20,000 people a day. Adrian Dix said in August that the increase should help B.C. meet greater demand for testing as the province heads into the cold and flu season.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Tuesday that the government is currently working closely with provincial microbiology labs to enhance test processing capacity. Tam told reporters that the current national capacity is “beyond 60,000 [tests per day]” at the national level. She said Canada needs to “augment the portfolio of testing capabilities in Canada” to include new technology like rapid saliva tests.
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A sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Ontario is the latest in a national trend of rising infections and the fear is that the rise in cases mean more hospitalizations and even deaths in the weeks to come. 1:58
IN BRIEF
Canadian support for keeping U.S. border closed remains strong, survey suggests
Canadians’ support for keeping the border closed to Americans remains strong, despite a decline in new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and a decimated tourism industry, CBC’s Sophia Harris reports. A new poll by Research Co. found that out of 1,000 Canadians surveyed online at the end of August, a whopping 90 per cent agreed with the current Canada-U.S. border closure to non-essential traffic.
The survey comes at a time when several Canadian border cities are suffering economic losses because of the absence of U.S. tourists. Nevertheless, they’re maintaining their support for the border closure to help stop the spread of COVID-19 from the country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths.
Global health specialist Steven Hoffman suggested that even with a decline in case numbers, many Canadians will continue to support the border closure because of concerns that politics is influencing the U.S. response to the virus. “It really starts to raise questions among people as to whether the response is being designed in a way to maximize its effectiveness, or is it being designed in a way to maximize or to influence the outcome of a forthcoming election,” said Hoffman, a professor of global health, law and political science at Toronto’s York University.
Toronto hospital employee feels ‘worthless’ after error forces 200 workers to return pandemic pay
A Toronto hospital employee says she feels the sacrifices she and her colleagues have made during the pandemic aren’t being valued after learning some of them have to give back the pandemic pay they were issued. The University Health Network (UHN) says about 200 physician secretaries and administrative assistants were “inadvertently” given pandemic pay ranging from $100 to $1,500 and averaging $700. The network has asked all affected employees to pay back the money.
CBC Toronto spoke with one UHN secretary who says the issue has upset colleagues in her department, leading to low morale during an already stressful time during the pandemic. “It makes you feel that coming in [to the hospital] and putting everyone at risk close to you, hoping you don’t get it, it makes you feel worthless,” she said. CBC News has agreed not to identify the employee.
UHN apologized to employees for the error and the upset it has caused. In a statement from spokesperson Gillian Howard, the health network says in an effort to ease the burden, employees will have up to March 31, 2021, to repay the money. Howard says the approximately 200 physician secretaries and administrative assistants were never supposed to receive the money because they are not eligible under provincial guidelines.
Now’s no time for complacency, COVID-19 ‘long-hauler’ warns
An Ottawa woman who survived COVID-19 has a simple message for other families, especially as the city and other regions experience a resurgence of COVID-19: Don’t become complacent. “Don’t think it’s over. That’s my biggest thing, is that people are just getting super complacent,” Brianne Quarrell told CBC News. “Being in the ICU, having that tube shoved down your throat, don’t think that’s a really pleasant feeling. It’s not a pleasant place to be by yourself. It’s horrible.”
Quarrell, 40, is what doctors call a COVID-19 “long-hauler.” She first tested positive on March 30, when her husband dropped her off at the ER after she became short of breath. She didn’t test negative until 79 days later, on June 17. Quarrell still feels the effects of the disease, even now. Her sense of taste and smell hasn’t returned, her hair is falling out and she’s constantly short of breath.
And yet, she fears the health messaging around the pandemic isn’t getting through to people. “I’ve gone to stores, people are wearing their masks under their nose. What’s that going to do?” she said. “Stay vigilant. It’s not gone. There’s no vaccine. There’s no sign it’s slowing down.”
Hospitalizations steady despite rising COVID-19 cases. But this could change quickly, experts say
Canada’s relatively stable hospitalization data should not provide too much comfort amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases, infectious diseases experts told CBC News. Cases of the coronavirus have begun to surge in Canada, as daily new infections for the entire country are now at over 600, compared to nearly 400 cases a day this time last month. But hospitalizations are still below 300, compared to a peak of over 2,000 in April.
Lower hospitalization rates support data that indicates a younger age group is bearing the brunt of new infections, Ashleigh Tuite, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, told CBC News. As a spike in cases is only becoming apparent in the last week or so — and it takes time for someone to show symptoms of COVID-19 — increased hospitalizations of younger people may become more visible if new infections within this demographic continue in the coming weeks, she said. “We saw something similar in the spring where we started to see an increase in cases and then in a week or two, we started seeing an increase in hospitalizations and then increases in ICU occupancy and then mortality,” she said.
Tuite said it may take time for hospitalization data to be reflected in official public health records, which is why it’s important to watch for a rise in hospitalizations, as it would be an indication to reimpose lockdown restrictions. “The challenge is you want to respond quickly if you start seeing increases in hospitalizations, because you don’t want to be back at the point where we were in March,” she said.
While it’s encouraging that Canada isn’t yet seeing the level of hospitalizations that was occurring in the spring, evidence from other countries shows that that could change quickly, said Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases specialist and associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “I would point to someplace like Florida … where they had fairly sustained higher transmission in younger age groups, and then it started to spill over into more vulnerable populations in six to eight weeks,” she said.
AND FINALLY…
World Series to be played entirely in Arlington, Texas, as MLB moves to bubbles for post-season
Michael Hermosillo of the Los Angeles Angels catches a fly ball near empty stands during a game on July 25, 2020, in Oakland, Calif. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The World Series will be played entirely at the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark in Arlington, Texas, as part of a bubble agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ association, The Associated Press reports. It’s the first time the sport’s championship will be played entirely at one site since 1944.
As part of an agreement finalized Tuesday, the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series will be part of a bubble designed to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, which decimated the regular season and limited it to a 60-game schedule for each club. The World Series will begin Oct. 20 at Globe Life Park in Arlington, a retractable roof stadium with artificial turf that opened this year adjacent to the Rangers’ old ballpark. The American League Championship Series will be at San Diego’s Petco Park, and the National League at Globe Life Park.
“In the view of our infectious disease experts, the biggest risk of exposure for players and staff is contact with family members and friends who have been exposed to COVID-19 in their communities,” deputy commissioner Dan Halem wrote in a memo sent to teams Monday night. “Nearly all of the positive test results that have been reported for players and staff in the last month can be traced back to contact with an infected family member, domestic partner or friend outside of club facilities.” Halem said MLB and the players’ association were in the process of finalizing details of the agreement, which provides for players to be tested daily during the post-season.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. syphilis epidemic slowed dramatically last year, gonorrhea cases fell and chlamydia cases remained below prepandemic levels, according to federal data released Tuesday.
The numbers represented some good news about sexually transmitted diseases, which experienced some alarming increases in past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10% from the year before — the first substantial decline in more than two decades. Gonorrhea cases dropped 7%, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019.
“I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the CDC’s Dr. Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working.”
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year — 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
Syphilis is a particular concern. For centuries, it was a common but feared infection that could deform the body and end in death. New cases plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected.
The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13% among gay and bisexual men. It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that group in the mid-2000s.
However, there was a 12% increase in the rate of cases of unknown- or later-stage syphilis — a reflection of people infected years ago.
Cases of syphilis in newborns, passed on from infected mothers, also rose. There were nearly 4,000 cases, including 279 stillbirths and infant deaths.
“This means pregnant women are not being tested often enough,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
What caused some of the STD trends to improve? Several experts say one contributor is the growing use of an antibiotic as a “morning-after pill.” Studies have shown that taking doxycycline within 72 hours of unprotected sex cuts the risk of developing syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.
In June, the CDC started recommending doxycycline as a morning-after pill, specifically for gay and bisexual men and transgender women who recently had an STD diagnosis. But health departments and organizations in some cities had been giving the pills to people for a couple years.
Some experts believe that the 2022 mpox outbreak — which mainly hit gay and bisexual men — may have had a lingering effect on sexual behavior in 2023, or at least on people’s willingness to get tested when strange sores appeared.
Another factor may have been an increase in the number of health workers testing people for infections, doing contact tracing and connecting people to treatment. Congress gave $1.2 billion to expand the workforce over five years, including $600 million to states, cities and territories that get STD prevention funding from CDC.
Last year had the “most activity with that funding throughout the U.S.,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors.
However, Congress ended the funds early as a part of last year’s debt ceiling deal, cutting off $400 million. Some people already have lost their jobs, said a spokeswoman for Harvey’s organization.
Still, Harvey said he had reasons for optimism, including the growing use of doxycycline and a push for at-home STD test kits.
Also, there are reasons to think the next presidential administration could get behind STD prevention. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced a campaign to “eliminate” the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2030. (Federal health officials later clarified that the actual goal was a huge reduction in new infections — fewer than 3,000 a year.)
There were nearly 32,000 new HIV infections in 2022, the CDC estimates. But a boost in public health funding for HIV could also also help bring down other sexually transmitted infections, experts said.
“When the government puts in resources, puts in money, we see declines in STDs,” Klausner said.
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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.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists can’t know precisely when a volcano is about to erupt, but they can sometimes pick up telltale signs.
That happened two years ago with the world’s largest active volcano. About two months before Mauna Loa spewed rivers of glowing orange molten lava, geologists detected small earthquakes nearby and other signs, and they warned residents on Hawaii‘s Big Island.
Now a study of the volcano’s lava confirms their timeline for when the molten rock below was on the move.
“Volcanoes are tricky because we don’t get to watch directly what’s happening inside – we have to look for other signs,” said Erik Klemetti Gonzalez, a volcano expert at Denison University, who was not involved in the study.
Upswelling ground and increased earthquake activity near the volcano resulted from magma rising from lower levels of Earth’s crust to fill chambers beneath the volcano, said Kendra Lynn, a research geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and co-author of a new study in Nature Communications.
When pressure was high enough, the magma broke through brittle surface rock and became lava – and the eruption began in late November 2022. Later, researchers collected samples of volcanic rock for analysis.
The chemical makeup of certain crystals within the lava indicated that around 70 days before the eruption, large quantities of molten rock had moved from around 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) to 3 miles (5 kilometers) under the summit to a mile (2 kilometers) or less beneath, the study found. This matched the timeline the geologists had observed with other signs.
The last time Mauna Loa erupted was in 1984. Most of the U.S. volcanoes that scientists consider to be active are found in Hawaii, Alaska and the West Coast.
Worldwide, around 585 volcanoes are considered active.
Scientists can’t predict eruptions, but they can make a “forecast,” said Ben Andrews, who heads the global volcano program at the Smithsonian Institution and who was not involved in the study.
Andrews compared volcano forecasts to weather forecasts – informed “probabilities” that an event will occur. And better data about the past behavior of specific volcanos can help researchers finetune forecasts of future activity, experts say.
(asterisk)We can look for similar patterns in the future and expect that there’s a higher probability of conditions for an eruption happening,” said Klemetti Gonzalez.
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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.
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
The expansion comes eight months after Waymo began offering rides in Los Angeles to a limited group of passengers chosen from a waiting list that had ballooned to more than 300,000 people. Now, anyone with the Waymo One smartphone app will be able to request a ride around an 80-square-mile (129-square-kilometer) territory spanning the second largest U.S. city.
After Waymo received approval from California regulators to charge for rides 15 months ago, the company initially chose to launch its operations in San Francisco before offering a limited service in Los Angeles.
Before deciding to compete against conventional ride-hailing pioneers Uber and Lyft in California, Waymo unleashed its robotaxis in Phoenix in 2020 and has been steadily extending the reach of its service in that Arizona city ever since.
Driverless rides are proving to be more than just a novelty. Waymo says it now transports more than 50,000 weekly passengers in its robotaxis, a volume of business numbers that helped the company recently raise $5.6 billion from its corporate parent Alphabet and a list of other investors that included venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz and financial management firm T. Rowe Price.
“Our service has matured quickly and our riders are embracing the many benefits of fully autonomous driving,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post.
Despite its inroads, Waymo is still believed to be losing money. Although Alphabet doesn’t disclose Waymo’s financial results, the robotaxi is a major part of an “Other Bets” division that had suffered an operating loss of $3.3 billion through the first nine months of this year, down from a setback of $4.2 billion at the same time last year.
But Waymo has come a long way since Google began working on self-driving cars in 2009 as part of project “Chauffeur.” Since its 2016 spinoff from Google, Waymo has established itself as the clear leader in a robotaxi industry that’s getting more congested.
Electric auto pioneer Tesla is aiming to launch a rival “Cybercab” service by 2026, although its CEO Elon Musk said he hopes the company can get the required regulatory clearances to operate in Texas and California by next year.
Tesla’s projected timeline for competing against Waymo has been met with skepticism because Musk has made unfulfilled promises about the company’s self-driving car technology for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis have driven more than 20 million fully autonomous miles and provided more than 2 million rides to passengers without encountering a serious accident that resulted in its operations being sidelined.
That safety record is a stark contrast to one of its early rivals, Cruise, a robotaxi service owned by General Motors. Cruise’s California license was suspended last year after one of its driverless cars in San Francisco dragged a jaywalking pedestrian who had been struck by a different car driven by a human.
Cruise is now trying to rebound by joining forces with Uber to make some of its services available next year in U.S. cities that still haven’t been announced. But Waymo also has forged a similar alliance with Uber to dispatch its robotaxi in Atlanta and Austin, Texas next year.
Another robotaxi service, Amazon’s Zoox, is hoping to begin offering driverless rides to the general public in Las Vegas at some point next year before also launching in San Francisco.
