The Ontario government is downgrading COVID-19 from a novel coronavirus to a \u201cdisease of public health significance,\u201d limiting the kind of data that needs to be reported to, and by, medical officers of health.<\/p>\n
The change is being proposed through a regulation<\/a>, which was publicly open for comment for a week earlier this month.<\/p>\n Under the new designation, medical officers of health will not need to pass on COVID-19 data unrelated to deaths and outbreaks to the Ministry of Health or Public Health Ontario.<\/p>\n Individuals who perform point of care testing will also no longer need to report every positive result to the medical officer of health.<\/p>\n The ministry said the change brings data collection for COVID-19 into alignment with the other 24 diseases<\/a> public health units track. Data will still be funneled to Public Health Ontario (PHO) directly from labs, which according to PHO have been enhanced to include public health unit and age breakdowns \u201cfor a larger proportion of the tests.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen COVID-19 first emerged, the need for detailed information was necessary, as the disease was novel, and little was known about the potential impact to public health,\u201d Health Minister Sylvia Jones\u2019 spokesperson Hannah Jensen told Queen\u2019s Park Today<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cCOVID-19 will continue to be monitored using existing administrative data streams (e.g., percent positivity, hospital reported daily bed census, ICU data, COVID-19 outbreak data),\u201d Jensen said in a statement.<\/p>\n According to a disclaimer on the PHO website<\/a>, this means public reporting of case counts and rates \u201cwill pause,\u201d although other \u201clonger term integrative data solutions for COVID-19\u201d will be explored.<\/p>\n Public health experts say the regulation will reduce administrative burdens on employees. Toronto Public Health, for example, said it will create \u201coperational efficiencies\u201d that will allow staff to focus its resources on outbreak management.<\/p>\n However, Dr. Andrew Pinto, associate professor at the University of Toronto and director of Upstream Lab \u2014 a not-for-profit research lab focused on social determinants of health \u2014 told Queen\u2019s Park Today he has concerns about the changes occurring in conjunction with the cutting of funding<\/a> for the COVID-19 wastewater surveillance program.<\/p>\n <\/i> Image description: Closeup photo of a COVID-19 rapid test. Photo: Dennis Sylvester Hurd. Public domain image.<\/p>\n The Ontario government is downgrading COVID-19 from a novel coronavirus to a \u201cdisease of public health significance,\u201d limiting the kind of data that needs to be reported to, and by, medical officers of health.<\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"