WATCH | Dad says he’s disappointed with class sizes, mask guidance:
Thomas Williams, who has children in Grade 1 and Grade 3, says his family originally chose in-person learning but is hoping to switch to online, disappointed with class sizes and mask guidance. 0:40
Some families in Ottawa say the long wait for COVID-19 test results is placing a burden on them as they’re forced to stay home from work and school.
WATCH | One family’s experience:
Caroline Bicker, who got tested for COVID-19 after she and her son developed runny noses, says her family’s life has been put on hold for five days as they await test results. 1:11
How many cases are there?
As of the most recent Ottawa Public Health (OPH) update on Thursday, 3,919 Ottawa residents have tested positive for COVID-19. That includes 587 known active cases, 3,052 resolved cases and 280 deaths.
Its five-day average of new cases per daily report is at its highest level of the pandemic.
Overall, public health officials have reported more than 5,900 cases of COVID-19 across eastern Ontario and western Quebec, with more than 4,700 of those cases considered resolved.
COVID-19 has killed 104 people in the region outside Ottawa: 52 people have died in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties, 34 in the Outaouais and 18 in other parts of eastern Ontario.
According to data shared by Ottawa’s four boards and OPH, more than 50 schools had reported at least one case of COVID-19 involving a staff member or student.
Five have what OPH considers an outbreak, or a reasonable chance COVID-19 passed from one person to another during a school activity.
What’s open and closed?
Some public health rules are being rolled back because of the second wave of the pandemic.
The novel coronavirus primarily spreads through droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes, breathes or speaks onto someone or something.
People can be contagious without symptoms.
This means precautions such as working from home, keeping your hands and frequently-touched surfaces clean socializing outdoors as much as possible and keeping distance from anyone you don’t live with or have in your social circle, including when you have a mask on.
There’s mounting evidence that COVID-19 disproportionately affects Black Canadians. Now, a Black-led research team is trying to pin down just how widespread infections are in Ontario. 2:02
Masks are also recommended outdoors when you can’t stay the proper distance from others.
A rider in a mask exits the uOttawa LRT station near downtown Ottawa on Sept. 22. (Andrew Lee/CBC)
Anyone who has travelled recently outside Canada must go straight home and stay there for 14 days.
Most people with a confirmed COVID-19 case in Quebec can end their self-isolation after 10 days if they have not had a fever for at least 48 hours and has had no other symptom for at least 24 hours.
Health Canada recommends older adults and people with underlying medical conditions and/or weakened immune systems stay home as much as possible.
What are the symptoms of COVID-19?
COVID-19 can range from a cold-like illness to a severe lung infection, with common symptoms including fever, a cough, vomiting and the loss of taste or smell.
Less common symptoms include chills, headaches and pink eye. Children can develop a rash.
Getting tested any sooner than five days after potential exposure may not be useful since the virus may not yet be detectable, says OPH.
If you have severe symptoms, call 911.
Where to get tested
Wait times and lines have been long at many of the area’s test sites, causing some to reach capacity before closing time or even before opening.
UPDATE: we’re now at capacity for testing kids & youth today at the <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CHEO?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#CHEO</a> Assessment Centre at Brewer. We’re no longer able to accept walk-ups. We feel your frustrations and are doing our best to increase the number of tests we can do each day. <a href=”https://t.co/jRWqakkXdi”>https://t.co/jRWqakkXdi</a>
It’s also taking up to five days for laboratories to process tests, according to OPH’s Etches on Wednesday.
Ontario health officials have said they’re trying to add more test capacity.
The Ontario government has revised its guidelines for who should get tested for COVID-19 at an assessment centre. But will that do much to cut down the long, long lines of people waiting for tests every day? 10:54
In eastern Ontario:
As of Thursday Ontario recommends only getting tested if you have symptoms, have been told to by your health unit or by the province because of your work.
The line up for a drive through, pop-up COVID-19 test centre winds its way through several parking lots, across a street and through another parking lot, outside the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Sept. 20. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)
In the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, there are drive-thru centres in Casselman and Limoges and a walk-up site in Hawkesbury that doesn’t require people to call ahead.
Its medical officer of health says the Casselman centre will be moved to reduce its impact on traffic.
Others in Alexandria, Rockland,Cornwall and Winchester require an appointment.
In Kingston, the Leon’s Centre is hosting the city’s test site though Gate 2.
WATCH | Why did Ontario cut comprehensive nursing home inspections?
When the Ford government scaled back comprehensive, annual inspections of Ontario nursing homes in 2018, experts say it may have left facilities unprepared and residents vulnerable to the novel coronavirus because the only oversight mechanism that reliably found infection control weaknesses had been removed. A joint CBC Marketplace and The National investigation analyzed thousands of long-term care violations in the year leading up to the pandemic and found the new system caught 68 per cent fewer infection control infractions. And the province’s 2015 report reveals these “resident quality inspections” were up to five times better at catching serious infractions. 8:29
People can arrange a test in Bancroft, Belleville, Picton or Trenton by calling the centre. Only Belleville and Trenton run seven days a week and also offer online booking.
The Leeds, Grenville and Lanark unit has walk-in sites in Kemptville and Brockville — the latter with extended hours this weekend.
Testing sites in Smiths Falls and Almonte which require an appointment, same for a pop-up site in Perth today.
Renfrew County residents should call their family doctor. Those without access to a family doctor can call 1-844-727-6404 for a test or if they have health questions, COVID-19-related or not.
Because of the high demand for <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/COVID19?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#COVID19</a> testing, we’ve added pop-up locations in <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Arnprior?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Arnprior</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Renfrew?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Renfrew</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Eganville?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Eganville</a> + <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Petawawa?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Petawawa</a>. This is in addition to regular schedule available at <a href=”https://t.co/60yVvCMyUu”>https://t.co/60yVvCMyUu</a><br><br>*Our 24/7 phone lines are busy today + you may be asked to call back . <a href=”https://t.co/cQFmrhsmzG”>pic.twitter.com/cQFmrhsmzG</a>
They can call 1-877-644-4545 if they have other questions, including if walk-in testing is available nearby.
Tests are strongly recommended for people with symptoms or who have been in contact with someone with symptoms. People without symptoms can also get a test.
Anyone returning to the community on the Canadian side of the international border who’s been farther than 160 kilometres away — or visited Montreal — for non-essential reasons is asked to self-isolate for 14 days.
Inuit in Ottawa can also call the Akausivik Inuit Family Health Team at 613-740-0999 for service, including testing, in Inuktitut or English on weekdays.
People in Pikwakanagan can book an appointment for a COVID-19 test by calling 613-625-2259.
Anyone in Tyendinaga who’s interested in a test can call 613-967-3603 to talk to a nurse.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Whooping cough is at its highest level in a decade for this time of year, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.
There have been 18,506 cases of whooping cough reported so far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That’s the most at this point in the year since 2014, when cases topped 21,800.
The increase is not unexpected — whooping cough peaks every three to five years, health experts said. And the numbers indicate a return to levels before the coronavirus pandemic, when whooping cough and other contagious illnesses plummeted.
Still, the tally has some state health officials concerned, including those in Wisconsin, where there have been about 1,000 cases so far this year, compared to a total of 51 last year.
Nationwide, CDC has reported that kindergarten vaccination rates dipped last year and vaccine exemptions are at an all-time high. Thursday, it released state figures, showing that about 86% of kindergartners in Wisconsin got the whooping cough vaccine, compared to more than 92% nationally.
Whooping cough, also called pertussis, usually starts out like a cold, with a runny nose and other common symptoms, before turning into a prolonged cough. It is treated with antibiotics. Whooping cough used to be very common until a vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, which is now part of routine childhood vaccinations. It is in a shot along with tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The combo shot is recommended for adults every 10 years.
“They used to call it the 100-day cough because it literally lasts for 100 days,” said Joyce Knestrick, a family nurse practitioner in Wheeling, West Virginia.
Whooping cough is usually seen mostly in infants and young children, who can develop serious complications. That’s why the vaccine is recommended during pregnancy, to pass along protection to the newborn, and for those who spend a lot of time with infants.
But public health workers say outbreaks this year are hitting older kids and teens. In Pennsylvania, most outbreaks have been in middle school, high school and college settings, an official said. Nearly all the cases in Douglas County, Nebraska, are schoolkids and teens, said Justin Frederick, deputy director of the health department.
That includes his own teenage daughter.
“It’s a horrible disease. She still wakes up — after being treated with her antibiotics — in a panic because she’s coughing so much she can’t breathe,” he said.
It’s important to get tested and treated with antibiotics early, said Dr. Kris Bryant, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at Norton Children’s in Louisville, Kentucky. People exposed to the bacteria can also take antibiotics to stop the spread.
“Pertussis is worth preventing,” Bryant said. “The good news is that we have safe and effective vaccines.”
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AP data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
How a sperm and egg fuse together has long been a mystery.
New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people.
“We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell.
Scientists had previously known about two proteins, one on the surface of the sperm and another on the egg’s membrane. Working with international collaborators, Pauli’s lab used Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold — whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize earlier this month — to help them identify a new protein that allows the first molecular connection between sperm and egg. They also demonstrated how it functions in living things.
It wasn’t previously known how the proteins “worked together as a team in order to allow sperm and egg to recognize each other,” Pauli said.
Scientists still don’t know how the sperm actually gets inside the egg after it attaches and hope to delve into that next.
Eventually, Pauli said, such work could help other scientists understand infertility better or develop new birth control methods.
The work provides targets for the development of male contraceptives in particular, said David Greenstein, a genetics and cell biology expert at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study.
The latest study “also underscores the importance of this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry,” he said in an email.
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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.
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