A Toronto-based Unity Health Rehabilitation Program for those with long COVID will be shutting down on August 31. The shuttering of the program takes one more virtual option away from those in Ontario with the condition.
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Topic: wastewater monitoringView all posts for the topic: wastewater monitoring
Wastewater sampling in Canada suggests COVID case rate 19 times higher than reported
At the peak of a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant wave in Ontario, wastewater sampling conducted before the surge suggested that COVID-19 cases were 19 times higher than reported because of changes in clinical testing.
Continue readingWastewater sampling in Canada suggests COVID case rate 19 times higher than reported
Comments closed Topic: N95 respiratorsView all posts for the topic: N95 respirators
Public Health should offer N95 masks
Re: Heavy smoke, smog wallop Ottawa, cancelling Dragon Boat, Indigenous festivals, June 25.
Thanks to climate change, we’re experiencing unprecedented hazardous air quality. Concentrations of pollutants have been an order of magnitude greater than the levels in major cities. And more smoke is on the way.
Ottawa Public Health should follow the example of public health organizations in other cities: it should distribute N95 respirators to Ottawa residents. Huron Perth Public Health is now offering respirators to residents who are at high risk for respiratory issues.
Comments closedTopic: rapid testsView all posts for the topic: rapid tests
Ontario to stop free COVID-19 rapid test program in pharmacies, grocery stores
An Ontario program that distributes free rapid tests for COVID-19 at grocery stores and pharmacies will end after this month.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents ask Ottawa’s largest school board to monitor air quality
As children are on the list of those most affected by wildfire smoke, some parents are concerned about sending their kids to school due to poor air quality.
During Tuesday night’s Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) budget meeting, Ecology Ottawa Board Chair Katie Gibbs requested that funds go to ensure better ventilation in schools.
Comments closedTopic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
Hospitals must keep the masks
Re: Three Ottawa hospitals loosen masking requirements, still require them in clinical areas, May 15.
I’m really disappointed to hear that masks will no longer be required in certain public spaces at the Queensway Carleton, Montfort and Royal hospitals. Preventative medicine is best.
We need universal masking with N95 and FFP3 respirators to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Board of health calls for Ontario to upgrade to building code ventilation standards
An Ontario board of health is asking the province to amend the building code to mandate higher standards for ventilation, in light of the spread of COVID-19.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Beyond the pandemic: Long COVID emerges as a silent crisis
Comments closed[I]t appears that, regardless of gender and other demographic factors, COVID-19 infection at baseline is correlated with increased problems with emotion regulation six months later: depression, anxiety and agitation.
Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Long COVID linked to lower brain oxygen levels, cognitive problems and psychiatric symptoms
Comments closedWe are the first to show reduced oxygen uptake in the brain during a cognitive task in the months following a symptomatic COVID-19 infection. This is important because a lack of sufficient oxygen supply is thought to be one of the mechanisms by which COVID-19 may cause cognitive impairment.
Topic: anti-vaccine movementView all posts for the topic: anti-vaccine movement
Residents abandoned to a violent occupation during ‘Freedom Convoy’: Report
Comments closedPeople who live and work in downtown Ottawa endured several weeks of widespread human rights abuse, amidst a climate of threats, fear, sexual harassment and intimidation marked by racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and other expressions of hate and intolerance.
While convoy organizers claimed there was diversity among the participants and supporters, and that was true to a limited extent, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of people involved in the protests were white males.
Topic: antisemitismView all posts for the topic: antisemitism
Antisemitism surges during pandemic
“International Holocaust Remembrance Day is important to recognize, because it commemorates arguably the worst-case scenario for a liberal democracy,” declared Daniel Panneton, director of allyship and community engagement at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
‘Gross negligence’: Judge gives go-ahead to COVID-deaths lawsuit against Ontario
Governments saw broad immunity against COVID civil suits, but the class-action suit for deaths in nursing homes could have an impact throughout the country.
Comments closedTopic: immune systemView all posts for the topic: immune system
Immune systems seriously weakened by COVID
Emergency wards remain busy two years after the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Ontario in part because the virus depletes the body’s supply of T-cells, leaving young and old alike vulnerable to secondary infections, says a University of Waterloo immunologist.
T-cells are the front-line soldiers of the immune system, and the number of T-cells typically increases when the body is fighting off an infection, said Barb Katzenback, who studies viruses.
“Individuals who are infected with COVID have many fewer T-cells,” said Katzenback. “That’s a problem for us because T-cells are a really important part of our immune system that helps defend us against infection.”
Comments closedTopic: Ottawa-GatineauView all posts for the topic: Ottawa-Gatineau
Rehab program gives hope to ‘long COVID’ sufferers
A groundbreaking rehab program at The Ottawa Hospital is offering hope to people suffering from “long COVID.”
Comments closedTopic: OmicronView all posts for the topic: Omicron
Omicron deadlier for Ontario seniors than previous two waves combined
Even as Ontario began reopening its economy and returning to some semblance of normalcy this year, COVID-19 was wreaking havoc on the lives of older residents — killing them at higher rates than the past two waves, new data shows.
Comments closedTopic: convoy occupationView all posts for the topic: convoy occupation
Anti-vaccine protest in Canada spurs outrage
In a scene at odds with Canadians’ reputation for niceness and rule-following, thousands of protesters railing against vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions descended on the capital over the weekend, deliberately blocking traffic around Parliament Hill.
Some urinated and parked on the National War Memorial. One danced on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A number carried signs and flags with swastikas.
In the aftermath of Canada’s biggest pandemic protest to date, the demonstrators have found little sympathy in a country where more than 80% are vaccinated. Many people were outraged by some of the crude behavior.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Citing Omicron’s airborne ‘potential’, Ontario hospitals, LTC homes will now use N95 respirators with COVID patients
Ontario health officials are changing a key recommendation on the use of hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to the “potential” that the highly-transmissible Omicron variant can spread at a distance through the air.
Health-care workers providing care to a “suspected or confirmed” COVID-19 patient in hospitals, long-term-care homes, or in a home-care situation will now be required to also use a “fit-tested, seal-checked N95 respirator,” according to interim guidance issued by Public Health Ontario Wednesday.
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