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Tag: Ontario

Ottawa Public Health warns of very low risk of hepatitis A exposure at south-end Tim Hortons

Ottawa Public Health is warning residents about a possible risk of exposure to hepatitis A at a local Tim Hortons in the city’s south end.

OPH says it is investigating a confirmed case of hepatitis A in an employee at the Tim Hortons at 372 Hunt Club Rd.

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Guelph wastewater testing will continue for COVID-19 and more by university researchers

Wastewater in Guelph will continue to be monitored for COVID-19, influenza and other illnesses through a new partnership between researchers at the University of Guelph and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

The researchers will get samples of wastewater three times a week, then will submit their findings to public health, which will in turn publish it to a public online dashboard.

Provincial funding for wastewater testing was cut on July 31 with the Ontario government citing a federal program that tests wastewater; however, none of the testing sites are in Waterloo region or Guelph.

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‘We were in a public health emergency’

A Kingston family doctor is being ordered to repay more than $600,000 to the Ontario government for what the province says was reimbursement for improperly billed medical services related to mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Dr. Elaine Ma has been told by the Health Services Appeal and Review Board to repay $600,962.61, plus interest, to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), to reimburse money she billed the province for vaccinations administered during drive-in COVID-19 vaccination clinics between July 2021 and January 2022.

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‘Mind boggling’ surge in pneumonia cases among children, teens and young adults

Perth emergency physician Dr. Alan Drummond has never seen anything like it. Drummond has treated five or six patients with pneumonia during almost every shift…

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Pat King found guilty of mischief for role in ‘Freedom Convoy’

Pat King, one of the most prominent figures of the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa, has been found guilty on five counts including mischief and disobeying a court order.

A judge in an Ottawa courtroom Friday said the Crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that King was guilty on one count each of mischief, counselling others to commit mischief and counselling others to obstruct police. He was also found guilty of two counts of disobeying a court order.

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Student’s article spurs inspection of school’s HVAC system

Kingston Secondary School will have its automated heating, ventilation and air conditioning system inspected next week following the publication of a student-written article that found the concentration of carbon dioxide in the school exceeded safe levels.

Principal Darren Seymour sent a letter to students, staff and parents last week in response to the article that appeared in “The Bears Bulletin.”

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Wastewater testing for avian influenza to begin in some Ontario communities

As bird flu infections continue to rise among livestock and humans in the United States, surveillance is ramping up in Canada.

Wastewater testing for the H5N1 bird flu virus is set to begin in the coming weeks in Ontario communities considered at high risk, said Rob Delatolla, whose University of Ottawa lab will lead the wastewater surveillance as part of a research program based at the University of Guelph. That will likely mean testing wastewater in communities in agricultural regions of the province. It is unclear whether there will also be testing in larger cities.

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She helped thousands get COVID-19 shots. Now she’s on the hook for $600K

A Kingston, Ont., doctor celebrated for organizing drive-thru vaccination clinics that helped thousands get shots at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic is now being ordered to pay back more than $600,000 in fees for those same services.

Dr. Elaine Ma said she organized 45 mass vaccination clinics that administered roughly 35,000 doses between April 2021 and the following February.

Her work was recognized by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, which granted her its Award of Excellence in 2021, in part pointing to Ma’s role in boosting local vaccination rates.

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‘Long COVID has really mystified’: Western University researchers take steps to unravel long COVID mysteries

Long COVID can have wide-ranging impacts, but is most commonly associated with brain fog, breathing difficulties and debilitating fatigue.

“Long COVID has really mystified a lot of physicians and scientists,” according to Dr. Douglas Fraser. Fraser is a researcher with Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, based in London, Ont.

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Coughing kids, coughing parents. To keep everyone healthy, we have to update our schools

I’m coughing, looking at my plans for the day, cancelling each one.

As an elected official, this is not a good look. We wish to be out and about with people. We certainly don’t want to be coughing all over our constituents in this time of COVID.

But elected officials get sick too.

Like most parents in the community I represent, when I start to feel sick I think back to all the places my family and I have been, and also what plans we have coming up.

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CHEO introduces new ‘safety measures’ for viral season, including masking requirements

Eastern Ontario’s children’s hospital is reintroducing safety measures for the viral season, including requiring people to wear a mask in clinical areas and waiting rooms and limiting the number of caregivers accompanying a patient to an appointment.

CHEO says the viral season can bring a “triple threat for children and youth” with seasonal influenza, COVID-19 and RSV.

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Toronto hospitals with UHN reinstate masking requirements ahead of the flu, cold and COVID season

Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN) is upping its masking requirements amid respiratory virus season.

As of Oct. 28, patients, visitors and staff will need to wear a mask while waiting for care, receiving care and in high-risk areas, UHN said in an update on its website.

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London clinical trial targets lingering COVID toll on patients – smell distortion

Haunted for more than a year by phantom smells she couldn’t explain, Rebecca Bruzzese said she worried about her safety and mental health.

She could smell burning cigarettes in her living room, but no one was smoking. Beef frying on the stove smelled like “excrement in a pan.” Coffee was even worse.

“It smelled like hot garbage,” the 32-year-old said.

Unable to eat, Bruzzese lost 30 pounds and developed other health problems.

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Updated COVID, flu vaccines arrive in London region, and health officials suggest you get both

Shipments of updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines have arrived in the London region, according to the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), with more rolling in as respiratory virus season inches closer.

A spokesperson for the MLHU said high risk populations are eligible for the shots for now, and the general population will have to wait until the end of the month to update their immunization.

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Ottawa’s wastewater surveillance program extended for another year

Two months after the Ontario government pulled the plug on wastewater surveillance, Ottawa health and research institutions have teamed up to extend the program in the city for a least another year.

Calling it an innovative solution that allowed for better monitoring of COVID-19 in the community, CHEO, the CHEO Research Institute, the University of Ottawa and Ottawa Public Health announced an extension of wastewater surveillance on Friday.

In addition to monitoring COVID-19 levels in wastewater, the program monitors levels of influenza, RSV and mpox in Ottawa. The program has been extended until September 2025.

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uOttawa, CHEO and OPH extend monitoring of viruses in wastewater to 2025

Our research group is truly grateful for the overwhelming support we’ve received from the community over the past few months through emails, letters, and phone calls advocating for the continuation of our wastewater monitoring system.

We’ve gained invaluable insights into how this information is essential for community members facing health challenges, and we are thrilled to continue providing this vital service. A heartfelt thank you to OPH, CHEO, and CHEO-RI for their unwavering support.

— Dr. Robert Delatolla
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COVID-19 boosters start rolling out to some Canadians. Who can get them?

Updated COVID-19 vaccines are starting to roll out to some high-risk Canadians, but others will have to wait a little while longer before these new shots are offered to them.

Last month, Health Canada approved Pfizer and Moderna’s latest COVID-19 vaccines targeting the most recent variants of the virus.

Both shots are approved for everyone aged six months and older.

The new mRNA vaccines from both pharmaceutical companies target the KP.2 subvariant of Omicron that was dominating COVID-19 spread earlier this year.

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People in Sudbury say free COVID-19 rapid test kits are hard to come by

Along with an increase in colds and the flu across northern Ontario this fall; pharmacies are seeing a bump in people searching, unsuccessfully, for rapid antigen COVID-19 tests to take at home.

In Sudbury, Ont., Lucio Fabris was one of them.

He recently went on the hunt for a test for his wife who had been exposed to COVID-19.

They were expecting a grandchild and they didn’t want to spread the virus to vulnerable family members.

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