Flu season has officially begun in Canada, the federal public health agency said on Friday.
“At the national level, influenza activity has crossed the seasonal threshold, indicating the start of influenza season,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in its weekly FluWatch report posted online.
Comments closedAs doctors recommend new COVID-19 vaccine doses to combat the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant, a mutation of COVID-19 that has continued to spread despite misconceptions that the virus is in the past, officials say Canada has sufficient supply.
Comments closedCOVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise across Canada as a wave of autumn infections sweeps the population, according to recent data released by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
Comments closedResidents of Haines Junction, Yukon, have had an early warning system to track COVID-19 and other pathogens for almost a year — and it’s showing an uptick in COVID-19 this fall.
Comments closedHealth Canada is currently reviewing applications for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s new mRNA vaccines, developed against the dominant XBB.1.5 variant ahead of a vaccination campaign set for the fall.
Comments closedWastewater surveillance became an important tool for detecting COVID-19 outbreaks in communities throughout the pandemic, and it continues to be used in search for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 as well as other pathogens.
But it’s unclear whether current levels of government funding to monitor wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 will continue beyond next year. Experts are calling on the federal government to create a standardized system for wastewater surveillance to bolster and replace the patchwork being used today.
Comments closedAt least two provinces have bowed to union pressure to let some health professionals use specialized respirator face masks when treating COVID-19 patients, sparking concern among infection-control experts this will undermine health workers’ trust in their advice.
Alberta and Ontario have reached agreements with unions to allow some health-care workers to use N95 respirator masks if they feel it is necessary. Nova Scotia’s largest nursing union is now calling on provincial officials to do the same.
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