New Zealand’s government will lift all remaining COVID-19 requirements from midnight Tuesday, bringing an end to some of the toughest COVID-19 pandemic rules in the world more than three years after they were put in place.
Comments closedTag: public health measures
Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Parents’ group wants more COVID protections in B.C. classrooms ahead of new school year
Protect Our Province is asking for HEPA filters, mask mandates, and fast-tracked COVID vaccinations.
Comments closedTopic: public healthView all posts for the topic: public health
A Covid FAQ with 300 Sources
Comments closedCovid is causing waves of brain damage, heart disease, organ failure, and chronic illness. It’s doing this damage in mild and asymptomatic cases. It doesn’t matter how sick you feel or how fast you recover.
Topic: human rightsView all posts for the topic: human rights
A Patient’s Right to Masked Health Care Providers
In May 2023, Mass General Brigham instructed its patients that they “cannot ask staff members to wear a mask because our policies no longer require it.”
Following patient protests, the hospital updated its policies with an imperfect fix, announcing that “patients can ask, but providers determine when and if masking in a particular situation is clinically necessary.”
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Should This Be Back-to-School Wear?
Health-care workers are warning a lack of masking could lead to a new COVID wave come fall.
Comments closedTopic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
DoNoHarm BC protests the removal of mandatory masks in healthcare settings
Comments closedAll COVID-19 patients (including vaccinated adults and children) are potentially at risk of long-term health damage or death, though some groups are disproportionately affected. These risks multiply with each reinfection.
Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
DoNoHarm BC to stage a die-in protesting end of hospital mask mandate
Comments closedGetting rid of masking means I can’t safely get the care I need. I need regular follow-up care, and because I’m immunocompromised, getting Covid in hospital is a massive risk… Right now, one of my greatest health risks is accessing medical care.
Topic: human rightsView all posts for the topic: human rights
End of health-care mask mandates puts vulnerable at risk: B.C. human rights commissioner
B.C.’s human rights commissioner is criticizing provincial health officials for ending mask mandates in health-care settings, saying it puts the most vulnerable and marginalized people at risk.
Comments closedTopic: JapanView all posts for the topic: Japan
Mask use in Japan at 86% despite eased guidelines, AI analysis finds
About 86% of people are still wearing masks in public a month after Japan’s guidelines were eased, according to an artificial intelligence system developed by broadcaster NTV surveying people at Tokyo Station.
Comments closedTopic: ChinaView all posts for the topic: China
What can the world learn from China’s “zero-Covid” lockdown?
For the first time in three years, millions traveled within China earlier this month to reunite with loved ones for the country’s most important holiday, the Lunar New Year. Unfortunately, these celebrations coincided with — and are sure to exacerbate — a Covid-19 outbreak currently spreading throughout the country.
Comments closedTopic: mental healthView all posts for the topic: mental health
“I don’t feel protected”: How a lack of COVID-19 protections is impacting mental health
People who are COVID-aware or at high risk discuss the mental health burden of staying safe.
Comments closedTopic: ChinaView all posts for the topic: China
Why China’s ‘zero COVID’ policy is finally faltering
For nearly three years now, China has had incredible success at keeping its number of COVID deaths relatively low. So far, the country has recorded only about 6,000 deaths among 1.4 billion people. By comparison, the U.S. has recorded more than a million deaths in a population of only 330 million.
China has accomplished this feat with what’s known as a “zero COVID” policy – using strict lockdowns and community-wide testing and other measures to keep case counts close to nil.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Citing Omicron’s airborne ‘potential’, Ontario hospitals, LTC homes will now use N95 respirators with COVID patients
Ontario health officials are changing a key recommendation on the use of hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to the “potential” that the highly-transmissible Omicron variant can spread at a distance through the air.
Health-care workers providing care to a “suspected or confirmed” COVID-19 patient in hospitals, long-term-care homes, or in a home-care situation will now be required to also use a “fit-tested, seal-checked N95 respirator,” according to interim guidance issued by Public Health Ontario Wednesday.
Comments closedTopic: OntarioView all posts for the topic: Ontario
Roughly 55 million N95 masks in Ontario expired before coronavirus hit
Millions of face masks stockpiled by Ontario in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak to protect healthcare workers during a future epidemic have expired, according to provincial officials and documents, raising questions about the readiness of Canada’s most populous province to deal with the spreading coronavirus.
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