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Tag: Ontario

Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

‘I was shocked’: Ontario to cancel widely used wastewater surveillance program

Published June 4, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Ottawa Citizen
Published on:
By Elizabeth Payne

The Ontario government is shutting down the wastewater surveillance program that has provided early warning for incoming waves of COVID-19 and a growing list of other infectious diseases since it was developed.

By the time it ends on July 31, the program that got its start in Ottawa early in the pandemic will be one of the biggest in the world to monitor the spread of infectious diseases through wastewater. Researchers were told of the decision to end funding last week.

Its closure comes at a time when COVID-19 is again beginning to spread through the world after a lull and when the United States and other countries are ramping up wastewater surveillance programs to warn about the possible spread of H5N1 avian influenza.

Continue reading‘I was shocked’: Ontario to cancel widely used wastewater surveillance program
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Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!Photo of some test tubes and equipment in a lab, with text: Protect our health. Save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring. StillCoviding.ca.
Topic: take actionView all posts for the topic: take action

Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!

Published June 4, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

📣 Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

✉️ Send letters to MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

Continue readingOntario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!
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Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!Photo of the Ontario Legislative Building, and the surrounding green lawn and trees. It is a sunny day, and the sky is blue with some clouds. Text reads: Save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring! Call Premier Ford Phone: 416-325-1941 TTY/Teletypewriter: 1-800-387-5559 StillCOVIDing.ca #WastewaterWednesday
Topic: take actionView all posts for the topic: take action

Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!

Published June 4, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

📣 Take action! Let MPPs know you want funding for Ontario’s wastewater monitoring program to continue

📱 Call MPPs to voice your support for wastewater monitoring.

✉️ Use our online tool to send letters to MPPs.

✉️ Use our online tool to send emails to municipal councillors in Ottawa or Waterloo Region.

📸 Post photos on social media.

Why take action? Wastewater monitoring is an essential public health tool that provides insights into the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in Ontario’s communities.

Continue readingOntario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!
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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

Video | Feds to stop providing free COVID-19 rapid tests

Published May 23, 2024

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Published by: Global News
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The federal government, which spent billions on COVID-19 rapid tests during the height of the pandemic, says it will stop supplying provinces and territories with those tests. Heidi Petracek explains the move, and the reaction from some provinces and doctors.

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Topic: Hamilton RegionView all posts for the topic: Hamilton Region

Ontario sees first measles death in more than a decade after young child dies

Published May 17, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By Codi Wilson

A young child has died of measles in Ontario, marking the first death in the province from the highly contagious virus in more than 10 years, a Public Health Ontario report confirms.

The child, who was under the age of five, was not immunized against the virus, according to the report, which was published on Thursday.

The report also confirms this is the first measles death in the province in more than a decade.

Public Health Ontario says that there have been 22 confirmed cases of measles reported in the province in 2024. Of those individuals, 13 were children and nine were adults. Four of the adults were previously immunized, two were unimmunized, and two had an unknown immunization status.

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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Number of Ontario measles cases nears 10-year high as Peel Region confirms new case

Published May 14, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By Bryann Aguilar

Health officials in Peel Region have confirmed a Mississauga resident has contracted measles, as the total number of cases in the province approaches a 10-year high.

In a news release on Tuesday, Peel Public Health confirmed its second case of measles this year. Officials did not disclose how the man got infected but provided locations where the public may have been exposed.

Those who were at Silver Creek Convenience and Health Care Medical Clinic on May 10 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., as well as Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Site Emergency Room at 9:15 a.m. on May 10 and 6:15 p.m. on May 11, are being advised to contact Peel Public Health at 905-799-7700 immediately.

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Topic: climate crisisView all posts for the topic: climate crisis

Risk of wildfire smoke in Ottawa low — for now: Environment Canada

Published May 13, 2024

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Published by: Ottawa Citizen
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By Blair Crawford

Smoke from wildfires in Western Canada will soon be drifting high overhead, but it poses no health risk in Eastern Ontario, says Environment Canada.

“Taking a look at our guidance and the weather patterns this week and the way things are panning out, it doesn’t look like Eastern Ontario needs to be concerned about its air quality at this time,” Trudy Kidd, a warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, said Monday.

“At best, people might see some haze in the skies in the coming days as the forest fire smoke makes its way through and disperses aloft, but from what we can tell at this time, the particulate matter — and that’s what’s of concern when it comes to forest fires — we’re expecting it to stay aloft,” she said.

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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Ontario will need tens of thousands of nurses and PSWs by 2032: document

Published May 13, 2024

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Published by: Global News / The Canadian Press
Published on:
By Allison Jones

Ontario will need 33,200 more nurses and 50,853 more personal support workers by 2032, the government projects — figures it tried to keep secret but were obtained by The Canadian Press.

The government recently won a fight in front of the Information and Privacy Commissioner to keep those figures under wraps after denying access to them to Global News following a freedom-of-information request from the outlet.

But the same FOI office made the information available to The Canadian Press through a separate request, a situation critics say exposes the frailties and arbitrariness of the access-to-information system.

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Topic: climate crisisView all posts for the topic: climate crisis

Wildfire smoke could move into Ottawa, eastern Ontario tonight

Published May 13, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By William Eltherington

Wildfires in western Canada will likely bring smoke into Ottawa and eastern Ontario starting on Monday and into Tuesday morning.

CTV’s Your Morning chief meteorologist Kelsey McEwen says smoke could travel as far as Quebec City by Tuesday morning with air quality advisories being issued in five provinces.

“You can see the Jetstream pulling that smoke down south of the border through the Dakotas and back up through the Great Lakes,” McEwen said.

“By tomorrow, this begins to slide toward the Ottawa-Gatineau area, tomorrow morning and out toward Quebec City.”

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Topic: convoy occupationView all posts for the topic: convoy occupation

Convoy leader Pat King heads to trial

Published May 12, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By David Fraser

One of the most polarizing figures to gain notoriety during what became known as the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa more than two years ago will stand trial Monday, signalling the tail end of criminal proceedings that have dogged hundreds of individuals who participated in the historic protest.

Pat King, from Red Deer, Alta., is facing charges of mischief, intimidation, obstructing police, disobeying a court order and other offences for his role in the protest that gridlocked downtown for nearly a month in early 2022.

Arrested and jailed for five months before his release that summer, King is unlikely to serve more time behind bars if he is found guilty, given laws around credit from time served.

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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Family doctor group calls for Ontario health minister’s resignation over ‘slap in the face’ comments

Published May 10, 2024

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Published by: Ottawa Citizen
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By Elizabeth Payne

The Union of Family Physicians of Ontario (OUFP) is calling for the resignation of Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones after the Ministry of Health suggested recruitment and retention of doctors in Ontario is “not a major concern.”

The group said the comments from the ministry are “insensitive and dangerous” during a period in which family medicine is in crisis.

The ministry made the argument as part of arbitration with the Ontario Medical Association over physician compensation.

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Topic: Ottawa-GatineauView all posts for the topic: Ottawa-Gatineau

$1 million investment for cleaner, healthier air, energy savings at CHEO

Published May 9, 2024

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Published by: CTV News
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By Toula Mazloum

The federal government says the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s (CHEO) will have major updates, resulting in healthier and cleaner air, and energy savings.

An investment of up to $1 million from the Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF) will go to the hospital to support its Deep Energy Retrofit Program, the government announced on Thursday.

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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Radio | Ontario Today with Amanda Pfeffer

Published May 8, 2024

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Published by: CBC Radio One / Ontario Today
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What questions do you have about COVID-19?

Dr. Fahad Razak joins Ontario Today and takes your calls. Razak is an internal Medicine Physician at St. Michael’s Hospital. He’s also the former scientific director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.

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Topic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response

Scientists, clinicians across Canada preparing for future pandemic threats

Published May 6, 2024

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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By Nicole Ireland

Nearly $574 million will be doled out to researchers across the country for projects aimed at ramping up Canada’s preparedness for future health emergencies, including the next pandemic, the federal government announced on Monday.

One of the 19 projects is a national network of existing emergency departments and primary-care clinics, called Prepared, that will screen for any new viruses or pathogens that start to appear in patients.

“As a public health specialist and as a practising physician, I would very much anticipate there being another respiratory pandemic in the future. The challenge is we don’t know when it will be or what it will be,” said Dr. Andrew Pinto, Prepared project lead and a family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

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Ontario: Consultation on infection prevention and control (IPAC)Image description: Photo of a healthcare worker with long brown hair, who is wearing a white respirator and glasses. To the right, there is some black text reading: Rx Prescription for healthcare settings: Wear an N95, FFP3 or elastomeric respirator. Use HEPA filters. It’s airborne. StillCOVIDing.ca
Topic: take actionView all posts for the topic: take action

Ontario: Consultation on infection prevention and control (IPAC)

Published May 2, 2024

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📣 The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has initiated a consultation on infection prevention and control (IPAC). Do you want healthcare workers to wear N95 respirators? Would it be safer with HEPA filters in healthcare settings? Let them know!

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Topic: researchView all posts for the topic: research

COVID-19 virus disrupts protein production, study finds

Published April 23, 2024

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Published by: University of Toronto
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By Jenni Bozec

When SARS-CoV-2 enters our cells, it disrupts the process of making proteins, which are essential for our cells to work correctly. A particular SARS-CoV-2 protein called Nsp1 has a crucial role in this process. It stops ribosomes, the machinery that makes proteins, from doing their job effectively. The virus is like a clever saboteur inside our cells, making sure its own needs are met while disrupting our cells’ ability to defend themselves.

— Talya Yerlici, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine
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Topic: SaskatchewanView all posts for the topic: Saskatchewan

Sask. officials knew COVID-19 was spreading at an ‘exponential’ rate in 2021, but refused restrictions

Published April 23, 2024

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Published by: CBC News
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By Alexander Quon, Zak Vescera

This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.

Newly obtained internal data shows the Saskatchewan government knew COVID-19 was spreading at an “exponential” rate in the fall of 2021, providing new insight into what officials knew before a devastating COVID-19 wave hit the province.

The Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) and the CBC have obtained a six-page briefing presented to top officials at Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health in September 2021, days before the provincial government publicly declined to re-introduce measures doctors said were urgently needed to stop the spread of the virus.

The presentation, dated Sept. 3, 2021, came before a wave of COVID-19 infections that killed hundreds and nearly overwhelmed the province’s health system.

The government would later have to airlift roughly a quarter of its most critically sick patients to Ontario because there were not enough doctors and medical staff to care for them in Saskatchewan.

Continue readingSask. officials knew COVID-19 was spreading at an ‘exponential’ rate in 2021, but refused restrictions
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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario

Public Health reports eight new high-risk COVID cases

Published April 19, 2024

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Published by: The Intelligencer
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Hastings Prince Edward Public Health officials reported eight new high-risk cases as of April 17 in the region, the same as in the previous reporting period.

The health unit also reported eight active high-risk cases, the same as in the last health unit report.

There were no new deaths attributed to COVID-19 leaving the number of deaths since the pandemic to 150 in the region.

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