Tag: Ontario

Ottawa: Contact councillors — save our wastewater monitoring!

Image of a chart with a plot of virus concentrations over time. Navy blue background with white text reading: Save our science — protect Ottawa's wastewater monitoring! Text in red: No data.

Ottawa: Contact councillors — save our wastewater monitoring!

Published May 2, 2025

Let municipal councillors know you want funding for wastewater monitoring to continue

Send letters to municipal councillors in Ottawa to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.

Why take action? The funding for Ottawa’s wastewater monitoring program is currently set to expire in September 2025. Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ottawa. We need an early warning system to inform everyone about the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 subvariants, influenza, avian flu, RSV, mpox, and other viruses.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

Ottawa has its 1st confirmed measles cases of the decade

Published May 1, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: May 1, 2025

Ottawa has its first confirmed measles cases since 2019, part of the still-growing outbreak in many parts of the province.

Ontario has now reported 1,243 measles cases across 17 public health units, including 223 new cases in the week since its last update.

That includes new cases in Algoma Public Health in the Sault Ste. Marie area and Renfrew County’s health unit northwest of Ottawa.

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Ontario

Ontario reports 95 new measles cases, sending total above 1,000 since outbreak began

Published April 24, 2025

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: April 24, 2025
By Nicole Ireland

TORONTO – Public Health Ontario is reporting 95 new measles cases since last week, bringing the total number of people infected past 1,000.

It says a total of 1,020 people have had measles since the province’s outbreak began last October.

The agency says the ongoing rise in cases is “due to continued exposures and transmission among individuals who have not been immunized.”

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Ontario School Safety Calls on Province for an Immediate Vaccine-PLUS Strategy to Tackle Current Measles Outbreak

Colourized transmission electron micrograph of a measles virus particle (red), with a blue background. Photo: CDC and NIAID. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Ontario

Ontario School Safety Calls on Province for an Immediate Vaccine-PLUS Strategy to Tackle Current Measles Outbreak

Published April 24, 2025

Published by: Ontario School Safety
Published on: April 24, 2025

Toronto, Ontario – [April 24, 2025] – In an urgent appeal to protect the health and safety of Ontario’s students, education workers, and families, Ontario School Safety (OSS) has issued an open letter asking the Ontario Provincial Government and Public Health Ontario for an immediate vaccine-PLUS strategy, which includes the essential role of healthy indoor air, to curtail the spread of measles. This critical request comes in the wake of concerning measles infection rates – as of April 17th, 2025, Public Health Ontario is reporting 925 measles cases in the province, more than five times the number of cases than the total number of cases over the last 12 years. Encouraging a vaccine-only strategy is insufficient due to barriers to access, and because measles spreads not only through direct contact with secretions or contaminated surfaces, but through the air we breathe.

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long COVID

Possible treatments for long COVID at the centre of new Western study

Published April 24, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: April 24, 2025
By Bailey Shakyaver

More than 300 patients across four continents are at the centre of a Western long COVID study, which hopes to find an effective treatment for those who struggle with long COVID.

The study will look to trial two anti-inflammatory medicines as potential treatments, and hopes to bring into view people who struggle with the disease outside of North America.

“Despite the global prevalence of long COVID, patients report different symptoms and their presentation can be influenced by where they happen to live,” said Dr. Douglas Fraser, professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. “A study with global reach, tailored to examine each patient’s most severe symptoms, has the potential to bring hope to people well beyond Canada and the U.S.”

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measles

Measles outbreak ends in Quebec as number of cases explodes in Ontario

Published April 22, 2025

Published by: Radio-Canada / The Canadian Press
Published on: April 22, 2025

The measles outbreak that began in Quebec in December has officially ended, the Ministry of Health has confirmed. The situation is quite different in Ontario, which has recorded more than 900 cases.

The spread has stabilized in Quebec in recent weeks, with the last recorded case dating back to March 18. Quebec has confirmed 40 cases of measles during this outbreak, with the vast majority (32 cases) in the Laurentians.

According to the government’s technical parameters for the management of measles cases, contacts and outbreaks in Quebec, the end of the outbreak is set at the 32nd day following the last presence of the last contagious case in an environment.

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Volunteers needed to test no-needle COVID vaccine made in Hamilton

Photo of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The building features a glass-walled atrium. In the foreground, there are some trees with green leaves. Photo by Captain108 / Wikimedia Commons.

vaccines

Volunteers needed to test no-needle COVID vaccine made in Hamilton

Published April 21, 2025

Published by: Hamilton Spectator
Published on: April 21, 2025
By Joanna Frketich

A made-in-Hamilton COVID vaccine that requires no needles is moving to the next stage of testing and researchers are looking for volunteers to take part.

The vaccine that is inhaled instead of injected will be studied by McMaster University researchers with $8 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

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Ontario

Measles is spreading in Ontario — here’s what you need to know

Published April 15, 2025

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: April 15, 2025
By Elizabeth Payne

A major outbreak of measles has infected more than 800 people in Ontario. It’s the first outbreak of its size since the disease was declared eliminated in 1998.

Now, lower vaccination rates are leading to a serious outbreak in the province, enough to garner a travel advisory to the province from New York State south of the border.

Here’s what you need to know about measles — how it’s transmitted, how you can protect yourself, and whether you need to update your vaccinations.

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Ontario

Ontario measles case count exceeds 800 total infections, 155 new since last week

Published April 10, 2025

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: April 10, 2025
By Hannah Alberga

TORONTO – Ontario is reporting 155 new measles cases over the last week, pushing the province’s case count to 816 since an outbreak began in the fall.

The number of new cases has increased again after a few weeks of appearing to stabilize in the 100-per-week range, which public health physicians had taken as a sign of potential optimism.

Dr. Sarah Wilson, public health physician at Public Health Ontario, says the fact that Ontario has exceeded 800 cases is striking.

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Toronto

Airborne Danger

Published April 4, 2025

Published by: The Grind Magazine
Published on: April 4, 2025
By Saima Desai

Stuffy, crowded classrooms mean kids are breathing in viruses and pollution. Parents are trying to make the air safer, but hitting roadblocks.

In September 2023, Heather Pun started sending her son to school with a carbon dioxide monitor. He was spending his days in a stuffy portable classroom, and she worried that COVID was being passed lung-to-lung through the stale air.

The device, which reads the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air, showed CO2 levels as high as 3,500 parts per million (ppm) in his classroom.

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long COVID

University of Waterloo students raise awareness about Long COVID

Published March 27, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: March 27, 2025
By Jeff Pickel

Although COVID-19 no longer makes daily headlines, some are on a mission to spread awareness about the impact the virus is still having on the community.

The University of Waterloo hosted a silent walk on Thursday to raise awareness about the condition known as Long COVID – when the impact of an infection is still being experienced months after the fact.

Those who have or had Long COVID, and supporters of loved ones with it, were among those on hand.

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wastewater monitoring

Measles ‘inevitable’ in Ottawa, expert warns as Ontario outbreak spreads

Published March 26, 2025

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on: March 26, 2025
By Elizabeth Payne

Ottawa Public Health has begun monitoring wastewater for evidence of measles in the city as the highly infectious disease continues to surge throughout Ontario.

That makes Ottawa one of the only communities in the province and across Canada using wastewater as a possible early warning signal for measles. Ottawa Public Health says the tool is promising for detecting measles, but the research is limited and “many unknowns remain”.

There have been no cases in Ottawa so far this year but Dr. Gregory Rose, who is director of infection prevention and control at Queensway Carleton Hospital, warns that it is only a matter of time.

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wastewater monitoring

Amid Canada’s largest measles outbreak in more than a decade, experts say this COVID-era tool could help

Published March 26, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: March 26, 2025
By Jennifer La Grassa

As Canada deals with its largest measles outbreak in more than a decade, health experts say a COVID-era tool could help tame the spread.

Wastewater surveillance, which involves testing sewage samples for viral pathogens, became essential during the pandemic. The data helped overwhelmed health officials map out COVID-19’s path and better predict the trajectory of cases.

At the time, it was praised as a critical public health tool that could serve as a warning system to keep Canadians safe from future harmful infections. And as the current measles outbreak surpasses 500 cases in Canada, experts say this is the moment where leaning into regional wastewater surveillance would be most helpful.

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measles

Ontario sees another sharp rise in measles cases while outbreaks grow in Quebec, Alberta

Published March 20, 2025

Published by: CTV News / The Canadian Press
Published on: March 20, 2025
By Hannah Alberga

There’s been another sharp increase in Ontario measles cases as the province begins to release weekly reports on the infectious disease.

Public Health Ontario is reporting 470 measles cases since an outbreak began in October. That’s an increase of 120 cases since March 14.

The spread resulted in 34 hospitalizations, including two people who needed intensive care. Most of those hospitalized were unvaccinated kids, including one of the intensive care patients.

The outbreak expansion adds to the growing concern of rising measles cases in different parts of the country, including in Quebec where there are 40 cases and Alberta where there are 13, according to the latest data.

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International Long COVID Awareness Day 2025

Image of Ottawa sign with teal-coloured letters, with text in white reading: International Long COVID Awareness Day. Teal, grey and black symbol of International Long COVID Awareness Day.

Ottawa-Gatineau

International Long COVID Awareness Day 2025

Published March 12, 2025

International Long COVID Awareness Day – COVID-cautious walk

Date: Saturday, March 15, 2025

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Where: Ottawa City Hall (meet at the entrance, Laurier Avenue side)

Join us for a walk on International Long COVID Awareness Day, Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 7 pm. The route is wheelchair-accessible.

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vaccines

Made-at-McMaster inhaled COVID-19 vaccine begins phase-2 human trial

Published March 10, 2025

Published by: McMaster University
Published on: March 10, 2025
By Blake Dillon

Researchers at McMaster University have started a phase-2 clinical trial on a next-generation, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine.

The AeroVax study, supported by $8M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), will test needle-free vaccines developed to provide protection from SARS-CoV-2.

Led by Fiona Smaill and Zhou Xing, members of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) at McMaster, the multi-centre trial will evaluate the new vaccine in a broad study group, while also confirming safety.

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measles

Measles cases in Ontario have nearly doubled over the last 2 weeks

Published February 27, 2025

Published by: Global News / The Canadian Press
Published on: February 27, 2025
By Hannah Alberga

This is a corrected story. A previous version from The Canadian Press erroneously reported that there were 84 new measles cases reported in Ontario over the last two weeks when in fact there were 78.

Ontario is reporting 78 new measles cases over the last two weeks, nearly doubling the province’s total count since an outbreak started in the autumn.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

City of Ottawa to fly flag at half-mast March 11 marking lives lost to COVID-19

Published February 26, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: February 26, 2025
By Ted Raymond

The City of Ottawa will be marking five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with a flag-lowering in March.

The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, triggering a wave of public health measures and restrictions on populations in an attempt to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

More than 1,200 residents of Ottawa have died from COVID-19 according to public health statistics.

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Tag: Ontario

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Let municipal councillors know you want funding for wastewater monitoring to continue

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International Long COVID Awareness Day – COVID-cautious walk

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