Tag: hospitals

Study: SARS-CoV-2 RNA found in 39% of hospital air samples during outbreaks, despite good ventilation

Published February 17, 2026

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: February 17, 2026
By Laine Bergeson

COVID-19 genetic material was frequently detected in hospital air during community outbreaks, even in well-ventilated settings, according to a new study published in Respiratory Medicine.

A team led by Kirby Institute researchers conducted air and surface sampling in the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) of a large metropolitan hospital in Sydney, Australia, during two COVID-19 waves between November 2023 and July 2024. Their testing found that 39% (20 of 51) of aerosol samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

Detection was significantly more common in the ED than in the ICU. Of the positive samples, 80% were collected in the ED and 20% in the ICU.

Comments closed

British Columbia

Health group calls on B.C. to bring back mask mandates in medical settings

Published February 12, 2026

Published by: Daily Hive
Published on: February 12, 2026
By Hanna Hett

In March 2025, the Province dropped its health-care mask requirement. DoNoHarm BC, an organization advocating for it to be reinstated, had been hoping that they would do so once respiratory illness season started last fall.

“We watched other provinces reenact these seasonal mask mandates, and waited and waited,” Beth Campbell Duke, a science educator, told Daily Hive. “We had a letter-writing campaign, and still there was no response.”

While people who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed are most at risk, she said that it poses a risk to everyone because no one knows how COVID-19 infection could impact them.

Comments closed

Independent health groups urge BC to reinstate and improve healthcare mask protections

British Columbia

Independent health groups urge BC to reinstate and improve healthcare mask protections

Published February 12, 2026

Published by: DoNoHarm BC
Published on: February 12, 2026

DoNoHarm BC and Protect Our Province BC warn of patient harm, staff shortages, and rising international risks

February 12, 2026 (British Columbia, Canada) – Independent public health groups in BC are calling on policy-makers to reinstate and improve mask requirements in medical settings. The call comes amidst multiple recent influenza and COVID-19 outbreaks in healthcare, following a winter punctuated by “unprecedented” ER closures and staff shortages, as well as massive measles outbreaks and a prolonged COVID wave across the border.

Comments closed

Alberta

Masks now required for patients, visitors at 4 Edmonton hospitals

Published December 23, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: December 23, 2025
By Hannah Kavanagh

Alberta Health Services (AHS) has instituted a masking requirement for four hospitals in the Edmonton area.

An enhanced masking directive is in place at Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Stollery Children’s Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital.

This means all patients, designated support persons and visitors must wear a mask in the emergency departments of the above acute care facilities. There are signs at the front entrance of each location signalling where enhanced masking is happening, AHS says.

Comments closed

Nova Scotia

Masks now required at all Nova Scotia Health sites

Published December 18, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: December 18, 2025
By Natalie Lombard

Nova Scotia Health says masking is required throughout all its facilities beginning Thursday.

However, the health authority says masks are not required in:

administrative buildings
private offices, nursing stations, or conference rooms (if no patients are present)
cafeterias (when people are seated)
patient bed-spaces (for patients, partners, and visitors)

Comments closed

Ontario

3 children die from influenza A-related complications in Ottawa and eastern Ontario region

Published December 15, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: December 15, 2025
By Josh Pringle

Three children have died from flu-related complications in the Ottawa area this month, as officials warn of a “rapid and significant rise” in influenza A cases.

In a statement released Monday morning, Ottawa Public Health said three children between the ages of five and nine have died from influenza A-related complications in the Ottawa and Eastern Ontario Health Unit regions during the first two weeks of December.

Comments closed

Ottawa-Gatineau

Return of mandatory masking in Outaouais hospitals

Published December 9, 2025

Published by: Radio-Canada
Published on: December 9, 2025
By Benjamin Vachet

The Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) de l’Outaouais has decided to reinstate mandatory mask wearing upon entry into its care facilities.

Starting on Tuesday, wearing a mask is mandatory in hospital centres, including the outpatient ward, the Pierre-Janet mental health hospital (including units 5 and 6 of the juvenile wing), the Physical rehabilitation centre, La RessourSe, residential and long-term care centres and seniors’ homes and alternative housing.

Comments closed

influenza

Children’s hospitals in Canada face flood of flu visits as doctors urge families to get vaccinated

High volumes put strain on limited pediatric hospital capacity, with flu season set to peak later this month

Published December 4, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: December 4, 2025
By Lauren Pelley

An early start to Canada’s flu season is hitting children hard, sending a flood of young patients into multiple pediatric hospitals as medical teams warn that emergency visits and admissions could keep climbing in the weeks ahead.

At CHEO, eastern Ontario’s children’s hospital in Ottawa, eight times more children tested positive for influenza in November compared with the same month in 2024, while double the number of children needed to be hospitalized. Most of those children hadn’t had a seasonal flu vaccine, according to CHEO’s emergency department team.

Comments closed

Ontario

Ontario wrote off $1.4B of PPE, province burning expired equipment: auditor

Province still buying masks, other protective gear at same levels as height of the pandemic

Published December 2, 2025

Published by: CBC News / The Canadian Press
Published on: December 2, 2025
By Liam Casey

Ontario wrote off more than one billion items of personal protective equipment at a cost of $1.4 billion since 2021, the province’s auditor general found.

Shelley Spence found the province continues to purchase masks, gowns and other protective gear at the same levels as the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, despite significantly declining demand.

“We found that expired products began to accumulate in the provincial stockpile as some of the products purchased during the pandemic fell short of desired quality standards and were not used,” Spence wrote in her annual report.

Comments closed

United Kingdom

Delay in COVID-19 lockdowns in U.K. resulted in some 23,000 more deaths: public inquiry

Published November 20, 2025

Published by: CBC News / Reuters
Published on: November 20, 2025

Former British prime minister Boris Johnson oversaw a “toxic,” “chaotic” and dithering response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a delay in locking the country down resulting in about 23,000 more deaths, a report by a public inquiry concluded on Thursday.

Britain recorded more than 230,000 deaths from COVID, a similar death rate to the United States and Italy but higher than elsewhere in western Europe, and it is still recovering from the economic consequences.

An inquiry, which Johnson ordered in May 2021, delivered a blistering assessment of his government’s response to the pandemic, criticizing his indecisive leadership, lambasting his Downing Street office for breaking their own rules and castigating his top adviser, Dominic Cummings.

Comments closed

Alberta

Alberta doctors call for regular access to vaccines in children’s hospitals to combat low immunization rates

Published November 17, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: November 17, 2025
By Jennifer Lee

Some Alberta pediatricians say making childhood immunizations routinely available in pediatric hospitals could help improve slumping vaccination rates in the province.

But the Alberta government is closing the door on that idea, saying children’s hospitals are under significant pressure, and it’s taking other steps to improve access.

Dr. Sam Wong, president of the section of pediatrics with the Alberta Medical Association, said he and his colleagues have been advocating for this change for several years.

Comments closed

Ottawa-Gatineau

Here are CHEO’s new visitor guidelines as flu season begins

Published November 14, 2025

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: November 14, 2025
By Elizabeth Payne

CHEO is reinstating public health measures for visitors to the hospital as viral season begins.

Beginning Monday (Nov. 17), visitors will be asked to wear masks while in all waiting areas and during clinical interactions. CHEO will also begin limiting visitors. There will be a limit of one caregiver for patients attending appointments, and no visitors under the age of 12 — including siblings — will be allowed.

The precautions are being taken to help reduce the spread of viruses and protect those who visit the hospital and its community locations, spokesperson Karl Oczkowski said.

Comments closed

Toronto

Mask mandate returns to UHN facilities ahead of respiratory virus season

Published November 14, 2025

Published by: TorontoToday
Published on: November 14, 2025

University Health Network (UHN) has announced a new requirement for staff, patients and visitors to wear a mask when inside its facilities.

Masks must be worn in all UHN facilities, including Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre as of Tuesday, Nov. 18.

All staff, patients and visitors will be expected to wear a mask in physician offices, waiting rooms for clinics, the emergency department and other outpatient clinical areas. Patients and staff must also wear a mask when delivering or receiving direct care, or when staff are closely interacting with patients in inpatient, outpatient and emergency clinical areas.

Comments closed

Newfoundland and Labrador

COVID-19 cases, vaccine campaigns helped prompt mask mandate’s return, doctor says

Published October 30, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 30, 2025
By Elizabeth Whitten

A temporary mask mandate is coming back to Newfoundland and Labrador’s hospitals and long-term care facilities, and one doctor says the driving force is two-fold — a rise in COVID-19 cases and the availability of vaccines.

On Wednesday, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services announced it was temporarily bringing back mandatory masking in clinical settings effective Monday. The release cited an increase in infectious diseases circulating.

“The timing of the mask requirement was a little bit deliberate to coincide with the timing of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccine campaigns,” Dr. Natalie Bridger, an infectious disease specialist, told CBC Radio’s The St. John’s Morning Show.

Comments closed

Montreal

Jewish General Hospital reinstates mask mandate as flu season kicks in early

Published October 23, 2025

Published by: Montreal Gazette
Published on: October 23, 2025
By Aaron Derfel

The Jewish General Hospital has reinstated a mask mandate for medical staff as the flu season has begun much earlier than usual this year, prompting fears that some elderly and vulnerable individuals might not get their vaccines on time.

“It’s not a bad thing to reinstate wearing masks in a hospital because you have sick people by default and you have high-risk patients,” Dr. Karl Weiss, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the Jewish General, told The Gazette.

Comments closed

Philippines

Quezon reinstates mandatory face masks amid flu-like illnesses spike

Published October 19, 2025

Published by: Philippine Daily Inquirer
Published on: October 20, 2025
By Delfin T. Mallari Jr.

LUCENA CITY — Citing a spike in influenza-like illnesses, Quezon Governor Angelina Tan has reinstated the mandatory wearing of face masks.

“Due to the increasing number of cases of illnesses such as colds, coughs, influenza-like illness, and severe respiratory infections like community-acquired pneumonia—and in accordance with Executive Order No. DHT-60—the wearing of face masks is hereby strictly mandated in all indoor settings, as well as in outdoor areas where physical distancing cannot be observed,” Tan, a medical doctor, said in a Facebook post on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19.

Comments closed

PEI

P.E.I. hospitals bring back mask mandates as experts warn of viral surge across Canada

Published October 16, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: October 16, 2025
By Maria Sarrouh

Mandatory masking is back at health facilities across Prince Edward Island as public health officials work to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses.

The newest numbers from Canada’s respiratory virus surveillance report show that during the week ending Oct. 4, COVID-19 activity was increasing on the Island, with about 20 per cent of tests coming back positive. Nationally, the average was under 10 per cent.

Comments closed

PEI

Masks will be required in all Health P.E.I. facilities starting Oct. 14

Published October 10, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: October 10, 2025
By Brittany Spencer, Marilee Devries

Officials with Health P.E.I. say people will have to wear masks inside all of the provincial health authority’s facilities beginning next week.

The policy is being put in place in response to the growing presence of respiratory illnesses on the Island.

Lara MacMurdo, director of occupational health, safety and wellness with Health P.E.I., said rates of respiratory illness are often higher this time of year.

Comments closed

Tag: hospitals

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

DoNoHarm BC and Protect Our Province BC warn of patient harm, staff shortages, and rising international risks

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

High volumes put strain on limited pediatric hospital capacity, with flu season set to peak later this month

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Province still buying masks, other protective gear at same levels as height of the pandemic

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Still COVIDing Canada Posts