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.
Comments closedPerth emergency physician Dr. Alan Drummond has never seen anything like it. Drummond has treated five or six patients with pneumonia during almost every shift…
Comments closedPat 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.
Comments closedAs 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.
Comments closedThe number of sick days employees working for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat took during the month of September skyrocketed as the department urged public servants to make their way back to their offices at least three days a week.
According to departmental data, TBS employees took a total of 2,191 sick days between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30.
That was up significantly from previous years. During the same period in 2023, employees took 1,708.9 sick days. In 2022, they took 1,477.9 sick days and in 2021 they had 1,075.4 sick days. In 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, TBS employees’ sick days totalled a mere 827.6 days.
Comments closedEastern 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.
Comments closedTwo 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.
Comments closedComments closedOur 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.
The dedicated green space will serve many purposes, including actively fostering engagement and reconciliation with Indigenous community members.
From the hollow of an abalone shell, sweet-smelling smoke curls skyward from smoldering sage, tobacco, cedar, and sweetgrass – four sacred medicines in Indigenous healing ceremonies. An Algonquin Elder gently brushes the braiding smoke with her hands and offers it to the four directions in a spiritually cleansing practice known as smudging.
Comments closed✉️ Send letters to municipal councillors to voice your support for wastewater monitoring. Use our online tool to send emails.
Comments closedThe Ontario government abruptly ended its wastewater surveillance program earlier than planned this summer, despite having funding in place until the end of September and being warned that the move could leave gaps in crucial information for public health, internal documents indicate.
The government pulled the plug at the end of July on the globally praised program that, at its peak, covered about 75 per cent of the province.
The program, overseen by the Ministry of the Environment, provided an early warning signal to health officials about the spread of COVID-19, influenza, RSV and other infectious diseases, based on wastewater testing.
Documents obtained through access to information by the Ottawa Citizen indicate that the province’s hasty decision last spring to end the program came before Ontario’s Ministry of Health had even begun negotiations with the federal government about taking over wastewater surveillance.
Comments closedIf it seems like many of your friends and neighbours have been sick with COVID this summer, you are not wrong.
Ottawa is experiencing a COVID-19 wave that is sending people to hospital, causing outbreaks in long-term care homes, retirement homes and hospital wards, and even causing deaths among some of the most vulnerable. At least one local hospital has tightened masking requirements following outbreaks there, and Ottawa Public Health is advising students to take precautions when they head back to school, including staying home when sick and wearing masks for their own protection and the protection of others.
Comments closedPublic health officials in Ottawa are ramping up a vaccination program to limit the spread of the mpox virus, and there are signs that early uptake has been brisk.
After announcing on Saturday that it was opening 36 spots for vaccination against the virus that causes the infectious disease formerly known as monkeypox, Centretown health clinic MAX Ottawa said Monday it’s fully booked and exploring ways to expand the program.
Ottawa Public Health’s (OPH) Sexual Health Clinic on Clarence Street is also offering vaccination against mpox. Eligibility criteria can be found on the OPH website.
Comments closedFor the past three years, Alexandra Johnston has started her work day by reaching for the pickaxe in the trunk of her car.
It is her tool of choice for prying open manhole covers – a task she demonstrated with practised ease last week while on a tour of her wastewater sampling regimen in Toronto.
Wearing a surgical mask and gloves, Ms. Johnston dragged the heavy cover aside, then grabbed hold of the fishing line secured underneath. After hauling up a few metres of line, she displayed her catch: a dripping wet tampon she had placed there the day before.
Her teammate, Claire Gibbs, quickly moved in with a prelabelled plastic bag to capture the sewage-laden sample. Using scissors, Ms. Gibbs deftly snipped the line, sealed the bag and stowed it away in the trunk as part of that day’s delivery.
Comments closedOttawa’s wastewater surveillance program will continue after the Ontario government ends funding on July 31, a memo from Board of Health Chair Catherine Kitts says.
In a memo sent to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and council members Wednesday, Kitts said the surveillance initiative, operated and managed under Robert Delatolla’s team at the University of Ottawa, will remain as it is while discussions about longer-term solutions continue.
The province announced earlier this year that it would stop funding for the highly regarded program as of the end of July — at a savings of around $15 million.
Comments closedWith just days to go until the Ontario government stops funding wastewater surveillance, researchers and residents who use the data fear crucial information about COVID risk is about to go dark, just as a new wave is spreading across Ontario.
Earlier this year, the Ontario government confirmed that it would stop funding the province’s widely respected wastewater surveillance program after July 31. At the time, a spokesperson said the government was ending the program, believed to cost in the range of $15 million a year, because the federal government was expanding its wastewater surveillance program and it didn’t want to duplicate the efforts.
The federal government currently operates four testing sites in Ontario — all in the GTA. It has said it wants to expand its program in Ontario to eight to nine potential sites. The Ontario program gathers surveillance at more than 50 sites.
With the end of provincial funding fast approaching — and a summer COVID-19 wave now beginning to surge in the province — there are growing fears that people who rely on the data on COVID-19 and other diseases will be left in the dark.
Comments closedIt was a familiar scene, but one that is becoming less common in Ottawa and across the country.
On a recent Friday, people arriving for an outdoor concert and dance at Saw Gallery in downtown Ottawa were greeted with signs telling them that masks were mandatory. The same signs thanked them for supporting their community.
Participants happily complied. Some said they have continued to mask and seek out COVID-safe spaces since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Others said they don’t always wear masks in public, but do so when there is a higher risk or they are protecting those who are more vulnerable.
Comments closedMark Servos is going back to studying fish.
After more than four years of testing wastewater for traces of COVID-19, the University of Waterloo fisheries biologist and his team that spans 12 universities will take their last samples next week as the country’s largest wastewater network officially disbands.
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has terminated the program as of July 31, removing one of the last reliable trackers of the virus’s spread in communities across Ontario.
Comments closed
