Medical officer of health for Peterborough Public Health, Dr. Thomas Piggott talks with host Molly Thomas about why he believes we shouldn’t drop wastewater testing for diseases — even if COVID-19 is not the same threat it was when the program was rolled out.
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Topic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Radio | Ontario suspends wastewater testing in the province
The provincial government is suspending the program that tests for COVID-19, flu and disease levels in community sewage systems.
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‘I was shocked’: Ontario to cancel widely used wastewater surveillance program
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.
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Topic: take actionView all posts for the topic: take action
Ontario: Protect our health — save Ontario’s wastewater monitoring!
📣 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.
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Topic: take actionView all posts for the topic: take action
Ontario: Call Members of Provincial Parliament on #WastewaterWednesday!
📣 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.
Comments closedTopic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies
Video | Feds to stop providing free COVID-19 rapid tests
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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Ontario sees first measles death in more than a decade after young child dies
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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Number of Ontario measles cases nears 10-year high as Peel Region confirms new case
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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Risk of wildfire smoke in Ottawa low — for now: Environment Canada
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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Ontario will need tens of thousands of nurses and PSWs by 2032: document
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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Wildfire smoke could move into Ottawa, eastern Ontario tonight
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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Convoy leader Pat King heads to trial
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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Family doctor group calls for Ontario health minister’s resignation over ‘slap in the face’ comments
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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$1 million investment for cleaner, healthier air, energy savings at CHEO
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.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Scientists, clinicians across Canada preparing for future pandemic threats
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)
📣 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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COVID-19 virus disrupts protein production, study finds
Comments closedWhen 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.