For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

February 16, 2021

To ensure everyone has current information, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health will be providing regular COVID-19 updates.

For more information please review our website or call 613-966-5500 or 1-800-267-2803.

Updates

Epidemiological

• Hastings and Prince Edward Counties have 387 cumulative lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 with11 active, 371 resolved and 5 deceased. There was 1 new case reported today.
  • There are no local long-term care facilities experiencing COVID-19 outbreak; additional outbreak details can be found online.
  • More information is available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca
• Vaccines administered to date:  1,483
• Ontario is reporting 904 cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths as more than 30,800 tests have been completed. There are 320 new cases in Toronto, 154 in Peel, and 118 in York Region.
• In Canada, as at February 15, 2021, there are 826,924 total cases of COVID-19 with 35,684 active cases and 769,929 recovered. To date, there have been 21,311 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 23,106,499 individuals tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to February 15, 2021

Summary of Cases in Ontario Schools - Updated February 16, 2021.

Local Updates

• Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board: On February 11, HPEDSB Director of Education Sean Monteith issued a letter regarding the Ontario Ministry of Education's decision to delay the mid-winter break to the week of April 12, 2021.
  • Eastside Secondary School: On February 11, an individual at Eastside Secondary tested positive for COVID-19. Those affected were contacted directly by HPE Public Health and a letter was sent with students who were considered at low-risk. In addition, Eastside Secondary School is closed on Feb 12, due to staffing issues connected to the positive COVID-19 case. The school ireopened on February 16.
• Community Paramedicine Funding Announcement: The provincial government is investing $5,946,200 over the next four years to expand the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Program to Hastings and Prince Edward counties. This initiative, delivered by Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services, will help more seniors on long-term care waitlists stay safe while living in the comfort of their own homes for longer.
   
• National Hockey League: The Province of Ontario announced on February 12 that they are allowing the Belleville Senators and Toronto Marlies to play games in Ontario. Currently, this permission will allow the Belleville Senators to play out of the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa under the NHL protocols that were approved earlier. The City of Belleville is thanking the provincial government for this decision which enables Belleville hockey fans to see the Belleville Senators resume playing games. In addition, should the permission change to allow games in Belleville, the City is prepared to do whatever it can to facilitate their resumption of activity in the CAA Arena.
   
• Quinte Health Care is reminding residents that if you are waiting to be swabbed or waiting for swab results, please note the following legal requirements for self-isolation:
  • People with COVID-19 symptoms must self-isolate both before testing and while waiting for test results.
  • People sent for testing as a contact of someone with COVID-19 must self-isolate for 14 days regardless of test results.
  • The minimum fine for violating self-isolation orders is $750.
  • For more information please read the Class Order issued by the Medical Officer of Health, pursuant to Section 22 (5.0.1) of the Health Promotion and Protection Act.
• North Hastings: On February 11, Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Daryl Kramp, Member of Provincial Parliament for Hastings—Lennox and Addington and Paul Jenkins, Mayor of the Town of Bancroft, announced funding for the construction of the North Hastings Community Hub. The project involves the construction of an accessible 4,000 square foot Community Hub, which will include new space for the North Hastings Public Library. Located on the ground-floor of a new, three-storey mixed-use building with twenty affordable housing units, the new Community Hub and public library will better serve the needs of the residents of North Hastings, a community which sees large population influxes every summer.
   
• Quinte West: The Duncan McDonald Memorial Community Gardens & the Dr. McMullen Recreation Centre are now open for ice rental. Individuals renting ice time must follow all safety guidelines in place.
   
• Belleville: City officials continue to meet with representatives of Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, Quinte Health Care, neighbouring municipalities and other community partners on an ongoing basis to receive updates on the COVID-19 situation locally and beyond. Updates since the last meeting were shared publicly in a media release.

Provincial

Ontario Expands Eligibility for Main Street Relief

• The Ontario government is expanding the number of small businesses that can apply for the Main Street Relief Grant to help offset the costs of purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) to cautiously and gradually reopen in parts of the province. Small businesses with 2 to 19 employees in all eligible sectors - expanded from 2-9 employees - including those in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector, can now apply for up to $1,000 in financial support. The expansion is being made as more parts of the province enter the strengthened COVID-19 Response Framework, which allows for the gradual and safe reopening of in-store shopping at non-essential retail stores.
   
• This one-time grant reimburses main street businesses for up to $1,000 in PPE costs incurred since March 17, 2020. Eligible businesses for the Main Street Relief Grant now include those with 2 to 19 employees in the following sectors:
  • retail trade;
  • accommodation and food services;
  • repair and maintenance;
  • personal and laundry services;
  • gyms and yoga studios; and
  • arts, entertainment, and recreation.

Ontario Improving Farm Safety for Agri-Food Workers

• The Government of Ontario is providing up to $118,500 to develop specialized COVID-19 resources to better protect the health and safety of temporary foreign workers and others employed in the agri-food sector.  Informed by health, cultural and support organizations, these new resources, entitled the "Cultural Resources Library," will be designed by the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association in a variety of languages and formats and will be distributed to farms, greenhouses and food processing operations across Ontario.

• This project in partnership with the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association is one of the government's many initiatives launched in 2020 to assist the agriculture sector to meet challenges related to the COVID-19 outbreak, including:

  • The $25.5 million Agri-food Prevention and Control Innovation Program to help reduce disruptions in business operations and risks of COVID-19 exposure in the workplace;
  • The launch of a portal to connect farms and other agri-food sector business with labour needs to job seekers;
  • The creation of a $26.6 million Enhanced Agri-food Workplace Protection Program;
  • The investment of an additional $50 million into the Risk Management Program, one year earlier than originally promised.

Ontario Returning 27 Public Health Regions to Strengthened COVID-19 Response Framework

• In consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Ontario government is transitioning twenty-seven public health regions out of the shutdown and into a revised and strengthened COVID-19 Response Framework: Keeping Ontario Safe and Open (the "Framework"). The four remaining public health regions, Toronto Public Health, Peel Public Health, York Region Public Health and North Bay Parry Sound District, will remain in the shutdown, and the Stay-at-Home order and all existing public health and workplace safety measures will continue to apply to these four public health regions.
   
• Visitor restrictions for long-term care homes will once again apply to those homes in the public health regions that are in the Orange-Restrict level or higher. In addition, long-term care homes must implement enhanced testing requirements.

Ontario Deploys Rapid Tests to More Essential Workplaces and Settings:

• Based on the successful use of rapid tests in select settings across the province is deploying test kits to more essential workplaces and sectors in order to quickly identify and help stop the spread of COVID-19. Rapid tests are now being used in long-term care homes, retirement homes, congregate care settings, First Nations communities and many essential workplaces.

Ontario Delays March Break in an Effort to Reduce Community Transmission of COVID-19:

• Education Minister Lecce announced that March Break will be postponed in Ontario until April 12 to 16, on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, to help limit the potential of community transmission.
• When asked if this announcement would be extended to private schools, Minister Lecce explained that while the Ministry of Education has authority over public schools, the message is to both public and private schools and “they should defer the March break.” He said “w
• e cannot take these risks for all students in the province. So, we are very much expecting cooperation with us within the province of Ontario to reduce the potential for congregation to reduce potential risk that comes with these variants.”

Update on COVID-19 Workplace Inspection Blitz:

• Labour Minister McNaughton provided an update on the impact of workplace inspection blitzes that focused on essential businesses.
• So far, more than 38,000 inspections have been completed across the province and 63 unsafe workplaces have been shut down. Since January, provincial inspectors have visited over 2,300 retailers from Windsor, Niagara, Toronto, Muskoka, Hastings and Ottawa.
• During three weeks of blitzes, with visits to almost 1,500 businesses, the compliance rate among big-box stores increased by almost 19 percent and by seven percent among other retailers such as convenience stores, dollar stores and gas stations.

Federal

Government of Canada Invests $53M to Address VOCs:

• Canada is increasing its capacity to find and track these variants by investing $53M in an integrated Variants of Concern Strategy. This will help rapidly scale up surveillance, sequencing and research efforts.
• This partnership involves the Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC) National Microbiology Laboratory (NML), Health Canada, Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
• To implement the Strategy, PHAC's NML is providing $20 million and CanCOGeN is providing $8 million to increase genomic sequencing and real-time data sharing capacity. CIHR is providing up to $25 million to scale up Canadian research to increase our understanding of emerging variants and provide decision makers with rapid guidance for drug therapy, vaccine effectiveness, and other public health strategies.

COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out in Indigenous Communities:

• Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces to support community vaccine rollout; ISC will continue to work with Indigenous partners to address human health resources and search capacity needs as the rollout of vaccines moves into the next phases.
• As of February 8, over 72,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in 344 First Nations, Inuit and territorial communities reaching 12 percent of the population vaccine dose target at a coverage rate that’s six times that of Canada.
• In Ontario, Operation Remote Immunity continues flights to 31 fly-in communities to vaccinate adults and the work is expected to continue over the next three months. Among the Muskrat Dam First Nation, the operation has reached a 96 percent vaccination rate for adult residents.
• Minister Miller said “planning our vaccination roll-out in cities also remains a priority. We are in regular discussions with Indigenous organizations at the National and other levels….municipal, provincial and federal health experts as well and vaccination centres are already open in Indigenous communities.” In the territories, Canada is “still on track to vaccinate 75 percent of the adult population by April.”

Other News

• Video Alert:
  • In this video, Public Health and Preventive Medicine Resident, Dr. Mark McKelvie, helps students understand how the COVID-19 virus spreads and shares information on how to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Useful Links

• HPEPH COVID-19 General Information
• HPEPH COVID-19 Information for Health Care Providers
• How Ontario is responding to COVID-19
• Public Health Ontario Coronavirus Disease
• Canada Coronavirus disease

We want to ensure this bulletin is as useful as possible. Please send your questions, comments and suggestions to etubbs@hpeph.ca

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: etubbs@hpeph.ca

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