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Tag: hospitals

RVH implements universal masking amid rising respiratory illness rates

Simcoe County’s largest health centre is taking action to protect patients, visitors and its staff from the increasing rates of respiratory illnesses in the region by returning to universal masking.

On Wednesday, officials with Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie announced that visitors would be required to wear a hospital-issued mask upon entry, effective immediately.

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COVID-19 kills 2 more in N.B., hospitalizations and nursing home outbreaks jump

New Brunswick reported two more deaths from COVID-19, a week-over-week jump in hospitalizations and nursing home outbreaks because of the virus, and an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations Tuesday.

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Dubé demande l’aide des Québécois et annonce des mesures pour les urgences

To reduce pressure on overflowing emergencies, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, asks people with non-emergency problems to practice self-care, contact their family doctor, family medicine group (GMF) or the 811 phone line instead of going to the hospital. He noted that 28 winter clinics are open and that agreements have recently been reached with residential settings to accommodate seniors trapped in hospital due to the lack of CHSLD spaces.

Emergency rooms are facing a “perfect storm”, says Christian Dubé: a cocktail of seasonal viruses, staff holidays (“earned”), a labour shortage (bigger than last year) and a lack of hospital beds with the aging population as a backdrop.

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One million Quebecers infected with respiratory viruses

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé and his chief public health officer warned Tuesday that the province is facing a major COVID-19 resurgence, coupled with a spike in influenza cases.

“We have a lot of vulnerable people that (are being hospitalized) because of influenza and because of COVID, and they should have been vaccinated,” Dubé said at a news conference.

“I think that the situation over the next few weeks will deteriorate. Let’s be clear about that.”

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COVID and flu surge could strain hospitals as JN.1 variant grows, CDC warns

Hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America’s health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC’s tracking shows.

“COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly,” the agency said in its weekly update. “Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas.”

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Hospital surge beds added as pressure grows in Alberta’s intensive care units

Alberta hospitals are squeezing in extra intensive care unit beds as respiratory virus cases balloon and ICUs fill up.

Alberta Health Services has added 17 adult surge beds since last week — 12 in Edmonton and 5 in Calgary— bringing the total to 240.

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COVID outbreak declared on fifth floor of Nanaimo hospital

An outbreak of COVID-19 has been declared on the fifth floor of Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

As of Thursday, a total of 10 hospital-acquired cases had been attributed to the outbreak. All patients are experiencing mild illness, an Island Health official said.

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Kingston General Hospital ‘bursting at the seams’ with COVID-19 and respiratory illness patients

The Kingston General Hospital says a surge of emergency department inpatients, including a day that had a near record 580 admissions, has the hospital struggling to keep up as the respiratory virus season peaks across the province.

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Strained Kingston hospital asks sick people to skip holiday gatherings

With a surge of patients with respiratory illnesses being cared for in its hallways, the Kingston Health Sciences Centre is reminding people to stay home if they’re feeling sick to cut back the spread — even if it means missing that holiday party.

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Révision des mesures au sujet du port des masques à l’hôpital Dumont

The Vitalité Health Network said on Friday that the population should now wear a mask in the environment of direct patient care at the Centre…

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Opinion: This is a pandemic of attrition

It’s time for our society to admit that we’ve made a mistake and change course. The COVID-is-mild experiment, despite the wishing and the hoping, has been a tragic failure. We aren’t just accepting ongoing hospitalizations and deaths to protect the economy, but also ignoring the social and economic costs of continuing high levels of acute infections. Worse still are more cases of Long COVID, a condition that takes many people entirely out of the workforce. And with every wave, the staffing attrition worsens.

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More than a year after her daughter’s death at Yorkton hospital, Regina mother still looking for answers

It’s been more than a year since Gwen Gilbert first raised questions about her daughter’s death at the hospital in Yorkton, Sask.

Teary-eyed, Gilbert echoed the same questions at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Wednesday.

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Now is not the time to end Covid-related services in BC

After 2023, funding for Covid-related services is set to end in BC.

For nearly four years now, British Columbians have been grappling with Covid-19. We’re currently aided by health management initiatives like vaccination, testing, and protective equipment for healthcare workers. Since 2021, these measures have been funded by BC’s Pandemic Recovery Contingencies, a three-year plan that also sustains economic recovery programs and supports for vulnerable community members.

This plan expires at the end of 2023. After that, our government anticipates that “most initiatives will wind down or be integrated into existing government programs.”

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Ontario hospital ERs have closed 867 times so far this year, health coalition says

Emergency departments and other hospital services have closed a record number of times in Ontario so far in 2023, according to a new Ontario Health Coalition report being described as “staggering.”

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Ottawa Public Health to let go most remaining COVID-19 staff as province ends special pandemic funding

Ottawa Public Health will let go most of its remaining COVID-19 staff by the end of the year as the province stops directly reimbursing most costs related to the pandemic.

OPH will continue offering vaccines to the most vulnerable, including long-term care residents and recent immigrants, but will wrap up broader COVID-19 efforts by the end of March.

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Les virus respiratoires prennent d’assaut les urgences du Québec

A trio of respiratory viruses hover over Quebec and send many patients to the emergency room.

According to Jean Longtin, a microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU in Québec-Université Laval, it is mainly the respiratory syncytial virus, the RSV, influenza and COVID-19 that are currently circulating.

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Toronto ER doctor says winter surge of respiratory illnesses has begun

Toronto emergency room doctors say the winter surge of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections is underway, with hospitals seeing a wave of visits across the GTA.

In the last week, nearly 250 Ontarians have been admitted to hospital, and Public Health Ontario (PHO) reports the COVID-19 wastewater signal is at its highest level in more than a year.

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