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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 closedNova Scotia Health will no longer require people to wear masks when entering its facilities, unless they are symptomatic.
The health authority updated its rules on Tuesday, stating that it will continue to monitor levels of respiratory illness, including COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Comments closedRespiratory disease levels have remained mostly steady in the past week, Ottawa Public Health says in its latest update.
Influenza remains a major concern with 13 more patients hospitalized in the seven days ended March 16. There were 14 new hospitalizations for COVID-19, which OPH described as “low and decreasing since last week.”
There were 45 more confirmed COVID-19 cases, about half of them in patients 65 years of age and older.
Cases of influenza, RSV and COVID-19 all increased in B.C. this week, according to the latest respiratory illness data from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
All three diseases remain well below their recent transmission peaks, however.
There were 528 positive tests for influenza in the province during the most recent epidemiological week, which spanned Jan. 21 to 27. That’s an increase from the 442 positive tests recorded the week before.
Comments closedToronto likely reached its influenza season peak in December, but according to Toronto Public Health’s latest respiratory illness update, COVID-19 infections are expected to remain high for now.
The percentage of positive influenza tests dropped to 6.6 per cent the week of Dec. 31 to Jan. 6, down from 15.6 per cent the week prior, Toronto Public Health (TPH) told the city’s Board of Health Monday. When it comes to COVID-19, positivity dropped only slightly to 17.6 per cent for the week of Dec. 31 to Jan. 6 from 18.6 per cent the week before.
But getting over the influenza peak doesn’t mean there aren’t still high levels of the illness in the city.
Comments closedSARS-CoV-2 may not be the only virus on the loose, but it is certainly one that continues to hit hard. The new data on COVID-19 and respiratory diseases from the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), published on Wednesday, tend to confirm this.
Everyone talks about the fact that they are constantly ill, that their family and friends are ill. Yes, it could be a cold or RSV [respiratory syncytial virus], but in many cases it’s probably COVID-19, says Dr Raywat Deonandan, epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
According to the INSPQ, in the week of December&nbs;24, there were 983,000 cases of respiratory infections, a number that has continued to rise since mid-October.
Comments closedCOVID-19 has killed 17 more New Brunswickers, including six over the holidays, while influenza has claimed nine lives. These are the first flu deaths of the season and they include a child under four, the latest data from the province shows.
Dr. Yves Léger, the province’s acting chief medical officer of health, held a rare meeting with reporters Tuesday because of the rise in respiratory illnesses.
Comments closedThe winter COVID-and-flu season is ramping up in California and nationwide, with doctors and other experts saying the worst of the respiratory illness season is still to come.
New data show pronounced recent jumps in the rate at which coronavirus and flu tests are coming back positive, as well as the number of hospital-admitted patients testing positive for the viruses. Workplaces are also seeing higher numbers of employees call in sick due to infections.
National wastewater data suggest this winter could see the highest number of coronavirus infections occurring during any given week since the first Omicron wave began in fall 2021.
Comments closedHealth Canada has approved a new vaccine geared toward protecting two groups most severely affected by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV): newborns, who would receive antibodies through maternal immunization, and Canadians over 60.
Pfizer Canada’s bivalent vaccine, called Abrysvo, aims to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by the virus.
It is the first RSV vaccine in Canada approved for use in pregnancy to provide protection for infants from birth to six months of age, and the second approved for seniors aged 60 and over.
Comments closedRespiratory virus outbreaks in Ontario’s long-term care homes remains dominated by COVID-19, with nearly 16,000 cases of the virus reported in the last four months.
According to a newly released report by Public Health Ontario, there have been 850 confirmed outbreaks in long-term care homes since Aug. 27, 2023.
This is compared to 32 influenza outbreaks and 32 Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) outbreaks.
Comments closedAs seasonal virus activity surges across the United States, experts stress the importance of preventive measures – such as masking and vaccination – and the value of treatment for those who do get sick.
Tens of thousands of people have been admitted to hospitals for respiratory illness each week this season. During the week ending December 23, there were more than 29,000 patients admitted with Covid-19, about 15,000 admitted with the flu and thousands more with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Comments closedA new antibody treatment could reduce by 80 per cent the numbers of babies and young children admitted to hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a “groundbreaking” study has found.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, the study involved 8,058 healthy babies aged up to 12 months from the UK, France and Germany, who were approaching their first RSV season. Half were randomly assigned to receive the antibody nirsevimab by injection, while 4,021 babies received standard care.
Of the babies who received the treatment, only 11 (0.3 per cent) were hospitalised, in comparison with the 60 babies (1.5 per cent) who were hospitalised after receiving just the standard care.
Comments closedHospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America’s health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC’s tracking shows.
“COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly,” the agency said in its weekly update. “Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas.”
Comments closedA trio of respiratory viruses hover over Quebec and send many patients to the emergency room.
According to Jean Longtin, a microbiologist-infectiologist at the CHU in Québec-Université Laval, it is mainly the respiratory syncytial virus, the RSV, influenza and COVID-19 that are currently circulating.
Comments closedToronto emergency room doctors say the winter surge of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections is underway, with hospitals seeing a wave of visits across the GTA.
In the last week, nearly 250 Ontarians have been admitted to hospital, and Public Health Ontario (PHO) reports the COVID-19 wastewater signal is at its highest level in more than a year.
Comments closedThe surge in respiratory infections in young children in northern China is being driven primarily by known viral and bacterial infections and not by a novel pathogen, the World Health Organization (WHO) said late last week in an update.
Comments closedNew data suggests that COVID-19 activity in British Columbia is trending downward, while influenza and RSV are on the rise.
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