Author of the article:
staff writer, Taylor Blewett
As COVID-19 case counts remain high in Ontario, the province has announced it is pausing visits to long-term care homes starting Thursday.
In addition, residents will for the time being not be allowed to take day outings for social reasons.
“We know that long-term care residents face an increased risk of COVID-19. Given the high community infection rates we’re seeing with the Omicron variant, the time for more action is now,” Long-Term Care Minister Rod Phillips said in a statement.
“In addition to the steps we’ve already taken, these new temporary measures will help keep residents safe and help critical staff remain on the job.”
Designated caregivers will continue to be allowed inside LTC homes.
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🧵 So we’re learning 41 #LTC homes are in outbreak & general visits are being halted. Essential caregivers STILL allowed in (good!). They’ve increased boosters among staff + residents BUT only meagrely & the figures are still too low! (84% residents & 43% of staff have boosters). pic.twitter.com/LjO4e5Zebq
— Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos (@DrVivianS) December 28, 2021
There are currently five ongoing outbreaks in Ottawa LTC homes: Extendicare New Orchard Lodge (one staff case); Peter D. Clark (four staff cases, two resident/visitor cases); The Glebe Centre (three staff cases, one resident/visitor case); Extendicare Starwood (three staff cases, two resident/visitor cases); and St. Patrick’s Home (21 staff cases, 13 resident/visitor cases).
St. Patrick’s is the only ongoing LTC home outbreak with a reported death: one resident or visitor. The outbreak started Nov. 17, while the others began within the last ten days.
Ontario logged 8,825 new cases of COVID-19 in the last day, Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Tuesday morning.
While the provincial COVID-19 data portal isn’t being updated between Dec. 25 and 28, Elliott has continued tweeting some high-level COVID numbers daily.
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The seven-day average for daily cases reported in Ontario is now 8,318.
Ontario reported 9,418 new cases Monday, 9,826 on Sunday and 10,412 cases on Saturday.
COVID-19 hospitalizations totalled 491, up from 480 the previous day and 412 a week ago. There are 187 people in ICU due to the disease, an increase of 11 patients from Monday’s total. The seven-day average for people in ICU is 171.
More than 144,000 vaccine doses were administered Monday, Elliott said.
Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore had scheduled a news conference for Tuesday afternoon as COVID-19 cases have risen across the province over the holiday weekend, but it’s been postponed.
Moore was to discuss case and contact management and testing, according to a media release.
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At his last media conference on Dec. 21, Moore warned that changes might be needed to case and contact management and that priority for rapid tests if they are still in short supply would be given to essential workers.
He suggested that asymptomatic health-care workers who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 may be offered daily rapid tests instead of being ordered to isolate in order to counter expected staffing shortages.
In Ottawa, PCR testing sites have already been prioritizing health-care workers to try to prevent staff shortages.
Because access to PCR testing has been constrained, it’s possible that not everyone who suspects they may have COVID-19 will actually be able to get PCR-tested and captured in the data being reported.
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Public Health Ontario has warned that case information is being underreported and to interpret their data with caution, following the Omicron-fuelled surge of infections and increased demand for limited testing capacity in the province.
People in Ottawa who test positive for the virus are being asked to notify close contacts themselves because contact tracing is also backlogged.
Residents have been advised to isolate themselves for 10 days if they have any COVID-19 symptoms or test positive on a rapid antigen or PCR test. The usual advice is to confirm the rapid test result with a more sensitive PCR test available at assessment centres, but it’s difficult to find an appointment because of demand.
Meanwhile, U.S. health authorities on Monday shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 to five days from 10.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that asymptomatic people with COVID-19 should follow their five-day isolation with five days of wearing a mask when around others.
COVID-19 in Ottawa
Ottawa Public Health reported 424 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the number of active cases among local residents to 5,287.
It’s the first 24-hour COVID-19 numbers update from the public health unit since last week. After reporting was postponed over the holiday weekend, OPH shared three days worth of data on Monday, reporting 2,262 new COVID-19 cases, or a three-day average of 754 daily.
Hospitalization data was also updated for the first time since Dec. 24. The number of Ottawans currently hospitalized with an active COVID-19 infection rose from eight to 11, including one person in ICU (previously, none were in ICU).
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According to OPH data, more than 19 per cent of tests processed between Dec. 20 and 26 (excluding LTC homes) came back positive for COVID-19.
Two new outbreaks were reported in local child-care centres, while one new outbreak was reported in the congregate care sector.
The seven-day average for the estimated R(t) value is now 1.1. A value greater than one indicates that each case is infecting more than one contact, and the virus’s spread is accelerating.
COVID-19 in Quebec and across Canada
Quebec set a record for new infections in a day with 12,833 reported on Tuesday.
The day’s new cases are more than were reported in the months of June, July or August this year. In fact, they’re more than the monthly totals from June and July combined.
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The seven-day rolling average of infections in the province is now at an all-time high of 9,133.
The number of hospitalizations due to the virus increased by 88 to 702 — the highest level since April. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has more than tripled in the last month. Of those patients, 115 are in intensive care — an increase of six.
Quebec also announced that 15 more fatalities had been attributed to the virus, bringing the province’s death toll to 11,692.
While people who do not have the protection of even one vaccine dose make up just 18.7 per cent of the province’s population, they accounted for the majority of the 158 hospital admissions due to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
On Monday, Quebec administered 59,816 vaccine doses.
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Meanwhile in Canada, with more than two million total COVID-19 cases recorded as of Boxing Day, there are mounting concerns over how provincial health systems will cope with an expected surge in cases after the holidays.
Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions President Linda Silas said her members are bracing themselves for the “big bump” usually seen two weeks after exposure to the virus. She added there are worries hospital could become overwhelmed with new cases as a result of holiday gatherings and the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Several provinces reported record high daily case counts over the Christmas weekend.
Quebec reported 8,231 cases, and Health Minister Christian Dube urged people to reduce contacts after hospitalizations climbed by more than 140 over a four-day period.
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Dube tweeted that 320 people were admitted to hospital while 179 were released between Dec. 22 and 26. On Monday, Montreal’s executive committee renewed the local state of emergency that was declared on Dec. 21 for another five days.
Manitoba announced new public health restrictions on Monday after recording eight new COVID-19 related deaths and 2,154 cases over a three-day period. As of 12:01 a.m., indoor and outdoor gatherings are now capped at 50 per cent of the venue’s capacity or 250 people, whichever is fewer.
New restrictions are also now in effect in New Brunswick, where the province announced it would impose a 50 per cent capacity limit on restaurants, stores, bars, gyms and other establishments after officials reported 639 new cases of COVID-19 over a three-day period.
Elsewhere in Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador reported a record 357 infections in the last three days, while Prince Edward Island reported 156 cases over the same period. Nova Scotia recorded 581 COVID-19 cases, including an outbreak at the Halifax Infirmary site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre.
With files from the Canadian Press and Reuters
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