The Manitoulin Health Centre on Manitoulin Island is closing its testing centre for COVID.
President and CEO Paula Fields says the last day for specimen collection at the Centre is this Friday, March 22nd.
She says since the beginning of the pandemic, the Centre has provided safe and timely access to COVID-19 testing and thanks everyone who played a role in relieving pressure off the emergency departments and in protecting Island communities.
Comments closedClass action lawsuits against six of Ontario’s largest for-profit long-term care (LTC) home providers, claiming gross negligence that led to illnesses and deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been allowed to proceed.
In a ruling last week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified class action suits against Sienna, Revera, Schlegel, Responsive, Extendicare and Chartwell.
The separate class actions were filed on behalf of thousands of clients, family members and visitors, who allege the companies were unprepared to provide care during the pandemic and failed to protect the health of residents and visitors.
Comments closedThe Ontario Superior Court authorizes six class actions against private operators of long-term care homes charged with negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complainants allege that the operators of these homes were not at all prepared for a pandemic and did not take the necessary measures to protect their residents and visitors. More than 200 centres, owned and managed by Chartwell Retirement Residences, Extendicare, Responsive Group, Revera, Schlegel Villages and Sienna Senior Living, are subject to these class actions.
Comments closedOntario’s Ministry of Health says it is launching an investigation into the practices of an Ottawa Appletree clinic after a woman was charged $110 to see a nurse practitioner for a routine cancer screening test.
Eileen Murphy says she registered with the Appletree clinic near Carling and Woodroffe last year because both she and her husband were without a family doctor. Their former doctor switched her practice from family medicine to dermatology in 2022.
Comments closedAn open letter calling for UW to implement more robust COVID-19 measures has picked up traction, receiving an endorsement from the World Health Network as well as a response from the university.
The letter was addressed to UW senior administration by the COVID Action, Response, and Equity (CARE) Coalition, a group made up of students, faculty, staff and alumni. It has garnered about 150 signatures so far, including UW Climate Justice Ecosystem, the UW QTPOC KW, and the School of Public Health Sciences Graduate Students’ Association.
Comments closedSeventeen cases of measles have been confirmed in Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia — more than half of those in the Montreal area, while one Ontario case has been linked to a high school.
Quebec public health director Dr. Luc Boileau confirmed 10 cases on Monday, almost all of them involving children and making Montreal the country’s epicentre. He said only three of the cases were linked to travel outside of the country, indicating community spread in and around the city.
Public Health Ontario confirmed five cases of measles and said all but one involved travel.
Comments closedDr. Angela Cheung heads up a network of scientists and health practitioners studying long covid. She’s also a senior physician-scientist at University Health Network in…
Comments closedRespiratory infections in Ottawa showed little change over the last week.
Ottawa Public Health reported 83 new confirmed cases and three new deaths during the period ending Feb. 27.
Last week, there were 130 new cases and two additional deaths.
This week’s reading brought the total number of Ottawa cases to 98,254 since the pandemic began in 2020, while 1,230 people have died.
The health agency’s weekly respiratory infections dashboard showed 12 new hospitalizations for flu patients in the seven days ending Feb. 24, for a total of 199 this season. The report described flu levels as very high, the same description as last week’s data.
The report showed 21 new hospitalizations for COVID-19, for a total of 1,064, and three more hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The COVID-19 and RSV results were described as “moderate.”
Comments closedA man in his 70s has died of COVID-19, the regional public health unit announced Friday in a weekly update.
This raises the death toll to 11 this year where the pandemic disease was a main or contributing cause.
Hospitalizations for the disease are stable and relatively low, averaging 13 patients per day on Feb. 17. This compares to a typical day in the pandemic with 27 patients in three local hospitals.
Comments closedThe fall COVID-19 vaccine cut the risk of COVID-19 illness by about half overall, and by 67 per cent for those with a previous infection, according to new research from the Canadian network that has long tracked the performance of the annual flu shot.
This is the first time the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network, which is comprised of hundreds of primary care providers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, produced mid-season estimates of the effectiveness of immunization against COVID-19.
Comments closedThe City of Ottawa’s general manager of emergency and protective services says there is no double standard when it comes to how Ottawa Bylaw issues tickets to protesters who violate things like noise bylaws.
His comments come after the city announced this week that bylaw tickets were not issued to protesters in Ottawa for the “Freedom Convoy” anniversary rally on Saturday, despite the fact that a group of protesters set off fireworks in a parking lot on Queen Street, in violation of the city’s fireworks bylaw.
Comments closed📈 The COVID-19 wastewater viral signal for Ottawa is very high. The signal has decreased substantially since a peak around January 12, 2024. Levels are still about 1,050% higher than the value during a low point on July 12, 2023. The signal has increased during the first week of February 2024.
⚠️ The percent positivity is high (9.39% in Ottawa; 12.0% in the Outaouais).
Comments closedA health advocacy coalition and the daughter of a deceased long-term-care resident have launched a court challenge against the Ministry of Long-term Care’s approval of the expansion of a Pickering home where the Canadian military reported disturbing conditions during the pandemic.
The challenge announced Tuesday calls for a judicial review of the ministry’s decision to approve an 87-bed expansion of Orchard Villa long-term-care home and a new 30-year licence for its parent company, Southbridge Care Homes.
The home would also redevelop 131 of its 233 existing long-term care beds.
Orchard Villa was one of five homes that the military entered in April 2020, when it reported inadequate staff training and resident care within the facility. According to the recent court filing, 206 of Orchard Villa’s 233 residents had COVID by spring 2020. During the first wave, 71 residents died at the home.
Comments closedA group of students at the University of Waterloo (UW) have penned an open letter to administration demanding the institution meet certain standards of care due to its ‘silence and inaction about the ongoing health crisis.’
Their group, called the Covid Action, Response and Equity (CARE) Coalition UW, is made up of about 10 students attending the university.
Comments closedConvoy protest organizers defending a proposed class-action lawsuit now argue the Ottawa Police Services Board should be on the hook for any potential damages to be paid out, claiming protesters were following police directions when they parked hundreds of trucks in downtown Ottawa during the 2022 demonstration.
“None of the defendants … had originally expected to park any vehicles on the streets of downtown Ottawa as part of the protest,” according to a new third-party claim filed by the lawyer for the defendants, which include organizers Tamara Lich, Chris Barber and Pat King.
Comments closedCOVID-19 infections showed another drop in the last seven days, with Ottawa Public Health reporting 144 new cases as of Tuesday.
That compares with 177 new cases reported last week and 264 new cases the week before.
The health agency reported five new deaths from COVID-19, compared with four a week earlier.
Comments closedDowntown Ottawa residents and business owners who launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against organizers of the 2022 convoy protest moved one step closer to having their day in court as a judge tossed a defence motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
“There is sufficient basis to conclude that the plaintiffs have a meritorious case,” Superior Court Justice Calum MacLeod said in his ruling, released Monday.
“There is evidence that certain plaintiffs were subjected to what they contend to have been extreme amounts of noise, horn honking, incessant diesel fumes and other pollution, blockage of the streets and intimidation.
Comments closedComments closedThere is evidence that certain plaintiffs were subjected to what they contend to have been extreme amounts of noise, horn honking, incessant diesel fumes and other pollution, blockage of the streets and intimidation. There is evidence that plaintiffs had difficulty accessing their properties and that business was disrupted, reservations cancelled, and revenue negatively impacted.
