Health

Statement from the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada on August 9, 2020 – Canada NewsWire

Published

4 years ago

August 9, 2020

OTTAWA, ON, Aug. 9, 2020 /CNW/ – In lieu of an in-person update to the media, Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, issued the following statement today:

“There have been 119,221 cases of COVID-19 in Canada, including 8,976 deaths. 87% of people have now recovered. Labs across Canada have tested 4,404,038 people for COVID-19 to date. Over the past week, an average of 48,360 people were tested daily, with 1% testing positive and an average of approximately 400 cases were reported daily from across the country.

The continuing efforts and sacrifices of Canadians have enabled us to flatten the curve of COVID-19, bringing the spread of the novel coronavirus under manageable control in Canada. This has allowed us to protect our healthcare system, while at the same time we have increased capacity in hospitals and across our public health and laboratory systems to maintain epidemic control going forward. Our efforts have also bought us time as research and science accelerate at an unprecedented pace towards finding safe and effective vaccines.

Informed by mathematical modelling, a recommended approach to controlling the COVID-19 pandemic involved an initial phase of strong public health measures—including closures—to interrupt exponential growth of the epidemic that threatened to overwhelm the health system. Following this, is a longer phase of less restrictive public health measures aimed at keeping COVID-19 under manageable control, while we cautiously reopen social and economic spaces. This overall approach has been popularly described as the “Hammer and the Dance“. In Canada, we’ve controlled the epidemic with the “hammer” and now it’s time for the dance to keep the infection rate down, until a safe and effective vaccine or treatment is available to bring COVID-19 under widespread and lasting control.

As I have said before, the virus doesn’t care about our past efforts. It’s what we do now that matters. We’ve come too far, lost too much, and have so much to protect. Our biggest struggle is to persevere with our collective effort, to maintain the careful balance of keeping the infection rate low (the dance), protecting the most vulnerable, while minimizing the unintended health and social consequences of restrictive public health measures (the hammer).

We can all do our part to maintain this balance by increasing our knowledge of high-risk settings to avoid, and what precautions to take to reduce the risk of infection and spreading the virus. Take some time this Sunday to read my backgrounder, available here, with key information and resources that will help us learn the dance moves for keeping COVID-19 under control and ensuring that we can all continue to do things we enjoy.

Don’t lose hope, keep on dancing and being part of the solution.”

SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada

For further information: Media Relations, Public Health Agency of Canada, 613-957-2983, [email protected]

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

Health

The US is mailing Americans COVID tests again. Here’s how to get them

Published

2 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order COVID-19 tests, without being charged, sent straight to their homes.

The U.S. government reopened the program on Thursday, allowing any household to order up to four at-home COVID nasal swab kits through the website, covidtests.gov. The tests will begin shipping, via the United States Postal Service, as soon as next week.

The website has been reopened on the heels of a summer COVID-19 virus wave and heading into the fall and winter respiratory virus season, with health officials urging Americans to get an updated COVID-19 booster and their yearly flu shot.

“Before you visit with your family and friends this holiday season, take a quick test and help keep them safe from COVID-19,” U.S. Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell said in a statement.

U.S. regulators approved an updated COVID-19 vaccine that is designed to combat the recent virus strains and, they hope, forthcoming winter ones, too. Vaccine uptake is waning, however. Most Americans have some immunity from prior infections or vaccinations, but under a quarter of U.S. adults took last fall’s COVID-19 shot.

Using the swab, people can detect current virus strains ahead of the fall and winter respiratory virus season and the holidays. Over-the-counter COVID-19 at-home tests typically cost around $11, as of last year. Insurers are no longer required to cover the cost of the tests.

Before using any existing at-home COVID-19 tests, you should check the expiration date. Many of the tests have been given an extended expiration from the date listed on the box. You can check on the Food and Drug Administration’s website to see if that’s the case for any of your remaining tests at home.

Since COVID-19 first began its spread in 2020, U.S. taxpayers have poured billions of dollars into developing and purchasing COVID-19 tests as well as vaccines. The Biden administration has given out 1.8 billion COVID-19 tests, including half distributed to households by mail. It’s unclear how many tests the government still has on hand.

Source link

Health

Free COVID tests are back. Here’s how to order a test to your home

Published

3 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can once again order free COVID-19 tests sent straight to their homes.

Source link

Health

Disability rights groups launching Charter challenge against MAID law

Published

3 hours ago

September 26, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – A coalition of disability rights groups says it is launching a Charter challenge against a part of Canada’s law on medical assistance in dying.

The group, which also includes two individual plaintiffs, argues that what’s known as track two of the MAID law has resulted in premature deaths.

Under the law, patients whose natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable but whose condition leads to intolerable suffering can apply for a track-two assisted death.

The coalition says track two of the MAID law has had a direct effect on the lives of people with disabilities and argues medically assisted death should only be available to those whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The executive vice-president of Inclusion Canada – which is part of the coalition – says there has been an alarming trend where people with disabilities are seeking assisted death due to social deprivation, poverty and a lack of essential supports.

Krista Carr says those individuals should instead be supported in order to live better lives.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

Source link