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Tag: Canada

B.C. hospital sees fast spread of COVID-19, but no outbreak declared due to ‘negative connotations’

Health-care workers at a hospital on Vancouver Island are sounding the alarm about the fast spread of COVID-19 at the facility in the last few weeks, after public health officials said they would not declare it an outbreak because of “negative connotations.”

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Masks now mandatory in ‘key patient care areas’ at Kingston hospitals

Masks are now required in key patient areas at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, including the Emergency Department, Urgent Care Centre and the Children’s Outpatient Clinic.

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Ontario government oversight of long-term care homes ‘largely collapsed’ during pandemic, ombudsman finds

What we uncovered was an oversight system that was strained before the pandemic, and proved to be wholly incapable and unprepared to handle the additional stresses posed by COVID-19.

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N.B. nursing homes lacked infection-control measures during COVID: auditor general

New Brunswick nursing homes that reported high COVID-19 infection rates lacked infection prevention and control practices, and were not properly inspected, says a report by the auditor general.

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N.B.’s top doctor at bottom of COVID-19 decision-making hierarchy, auditor general finds

The Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health was at the bottom of New Brunswick’s COVID-19 pandemic decision-making hierarchy, a new report by the auditor general shows, while third from the top, after cabinet and the cabinet committee on COVID-19, was a group that several MLAs say they knew nothing about.

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Mask requirements returning to Ottawa Hospital ahead of fall virus season

Starting Monday, Sept. 11, masking will be required in all clinical areas and waiting rooms, including inpatient units, patient rooms, nursing stations and ambulatory care areas.

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New COVID shots effective against latest variant, Pfizer and Moderna say

Pfizer on Wednesday said the updated Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine expected to be used this fall elicited a strong antibody response against the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus in a preclinical study in mice.

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Depuis l’arrivée d’Omicron, des dizaines de milliers de Canadiens ont été hospitalisés

In 2021-2022, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of hospitalization in adults in Canada, after childbirth. The previous year, it was the seventh main reason.

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COVID-19 : les experts s’attendent à une recrudescence des cas cet automne à Ottawa

Public health experts warn that the higher levels of COVID-19 observed in Ottawa over the past month are expected to continue to rise throughout the fall.

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Will updated COVID vaccines work against latest variant? Canadian scientists monitor global research

Health Canada is currently reviewing applications for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s new mRNA vaccines, developed against the dominant XBB.1.5 variant ahead of a vaccination campaign set for the fall.

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‘The pandemic is not over’: Experts expect a surge in COVID cases this fall

Higher COVID-19 levels seen in Ottawa in the past month are expected to continue to rise through the fall, public health experts warn.

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A look inside Waterloo Region’s wastewater surveillance program

You may not have heard as much about the spread of COVID-19 lately, but the threat remains.

Wastewater testing continues in Waterloo Region and over the last several weeks, it’s been picking up increased signals of the virus.

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School mask mandates again? Why some experts believe it’s a good idea

“Children are not going to wear masks unless there’s a mask mandate, because we saw how quickly kids stopped wearing masks when they didn’t have to. The peer pressure that affects children in school, it’s really extraordinary. We’re still going to need to make it a rule for children and young adults to wear masks in school.”

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L’espérance de vie diminue pour une deuxième année d’affilée au Canada

COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death, although it caused fewer deaths. More than 14,000 people died in 2021 due to the virus, compared to more than 16,000 deaths the previous year.

However, Statistics Canada notes that COVID-19 has hit younger groups more than in the first year of the pandemic.

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First-person stories from British Columbians

CW: cancer, surgery, medical negligence, denial of care, disability grief

As part of DoNoHarm BC’s #Postcards4PublicHealth campaign, we’ve invited British Columbians to share their stories about the lack of Covid safety in BC – particularly the loss of mask protections in healthcare. Many wrote directly to policy makers. Some generously gave us permission to share their stories with the public and the press.

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What Canada’s newest COVID data shows us about the toll of Omicron

The latest snapshot of Canada’s battle against the pandemic captures the toll the Omicron variant has taken on the elderly.

The highly infectious variant drove up hospitalizations across Canada, especially in those age 65 and older, according to data released Wednesday from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

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