Snow might not be swirling in the UK but Covid is in the air this Christmas, data has revealed, with experts warning a new variant is on the rise around the world.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), an estimated 4.2%, or one in 24 people, in England and Scotland had Covid on 13 December compared with 1.8% – or one in 55 – on 29 November.
Comments closedPeople are getting infected with COVID subvariant JN.1, but there are ways to protect yourself, your loved ones and the community over the holiday season.
Comments closedA rapid test importer landed an estimated $2 billion in federal contracts in 2021 and 2022, despite giving regulators incomplete data about its product’s accuracy, Global News has found.
A year-long investigation into federal procurement revealed that BTNX, a small rapid test supplier based outside Toronto, deleted dozens of specimens, or samples, from a study it submitted to Health Canada. That evaluation showed how well the company’s test detected COVID-19.
The deletions made BTNX’s test appear more reliable and sensitive than it really was, according to researchers Global News consulted.
Comments closed📈 The COVID-19 wastewater viral signal for Ottawa has increased substantially (+1,735%) since a low on July 12, 2023. It is extremely high.
⚠️ The percent positivity is extremely high (16.27% in Ottawa; 27.2% in the Outaouais).
🏥 Confirmed COVID-19 patients in Ottawa hospitals: 158 ( decrease of 6).
In 2023, there have been 131 COVID-19 outbreaks at Ottawa’s hospitals so far, leading to 21 deaths and 1,061 known cases of COVID-19.
Comments closedInfectious diseases expert Dr. Donald Vinh on the high number of viruses circulating in Quebec right now and how people can avoid them.
Comments closedWindsor Regional Hospital has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at its Ouellette Campus.
The outbreak was declared on its 8 West unit on Dec. 20, with a total of three patients affected.
Comments closedWith winter increasing the spread of three illnesses across the territory, Nunavut’s chief public health officer is urging people to take steps to protect themselves.
There are 75 confirmed cases of flu; 16 cases of RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus; and 12 cases of COVID-19 in Nunavut, Dr. Sean Wachtel said Tuesday.
But the actual number of people sickened is probably higher than that, he said.
Comments closedAccording to a small case-control study today in Scientific Reports, long COVID can affect heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and during deep breathing, adding to the evidence that persistent symptoms of the virus can be associated with cardiac and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (dysautonomia). This system regulates involuntary functions like heartbeat, blood pressure, and sweating.
The study, conducted by Brazilian researchers, included 21 patients with long COVID and 20 controls. Long COVID—defined by the authors as new or persistent symptoms experienced 12 or more weeks after infection—has been associated with heart palpitations, orthostatic intolerance (difficulty staying upright), dizziness, and syncope.
Comments closedWhen the coronavirus pandemic took hold in an unprepared U.S., many states like Ohio scrambled for masks and other protective gear. Supplies were so limited in 2020 that the state bought millions of medical gowns from a marketing and printing company and spent about $20 million to try to get personal protective equipment made in-state.
Three years later, as the grips of the pandemic have loosened, Ohio and other states are now trying to deal with an excess of protective gear, ditching their supplies in droves.
Comments closedAn analysis of 7 million contacts of COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom estimates that most transmissions resulted from exposures lasting 1 hour to several days and that households accounted for 40% of spread from spring 2021 to early 2022.
Comments closedVaccinated children are less likely than unvaccinated children to develop long COVID, the myriad of symptoms that can last for months to years following a SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to a forthcoming US study1.
“This is really important data,” says Jessica Snowden, a paediatric infectious-disease specialist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. She says that in the United States, COVID-19 vaccines are recommended for children as young as 6 months old. But uptake has been low. “This will demonstrate to families how important it is that we protect our kids, not just from acute COVID, but from the longer-term impacts of COVID as well.”
Comments closedCanadians raced to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first years of the pandemic, but data suggests there’s far less of a rush to get the latest shots available this fall.
Federal figures show only 15 per cent of the population aged five and up had received an updated vaccine by Dec. 3. And while older age groups had higher uptake rates, more than half of higher-risk older adults still hadn’t gotten a dose by early December, either.
Comments closedCOVID-19 is still a “key contributor” to higher death rates as new data reveals Australia’s nationwide mortality rate is sitting at more than six per cent higher than expected.
The national excess mortality rate for the first eight months of 2023 shows deaths are estimated at 6.1 per cent above expected levels.
It marks a drop from 14.1 per cent higher than expected mortality rates during the same period in 2022, according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Comments closedDue to its rapid growth and potential to add to the respiratory virus burden in Northern Hemisphere countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today designated JN.1, part of the BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, as its own variant of interest.
The announcement came following an assessment from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Comments closedNew Brunswick reported two more deaths from COVID-19, a week-over-week jump in hospitalizations and nursing home outbreaks because of the virus, and an increase in flu cases and hospitalizations Tuesday.
Comments closedTo reduce pressure on overflowing emergencies, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, asks people with non-emergency problems to practice self-care, contact their family doctor, family medicine group (GMF) or the 811 phone line instead of going to the hospital. He noted that 28 winter clinics are open and that agreements have recently been reached with residential settings to accommodate seniors trapped in hospital due to the lack of CHSLD spaces.
Emergency rooms are facing a “perfect storm”, says Christian Dubé: a cocktail of seasonal viruses, staff holidays (“earned”), a labour shortage (bigger than last year) and a lack of hospital beds with the aging population as a backdrop.
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