For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

April 8, 2020

To ensure everyone has current information during this quickly evolving outbreak, Hastings Prince Edward Public Health will be providing regular COVID-19 updates over the next several weeks.

For more information please review our website or call 613-966-5500.

Updates

Epidemiological

• Hastings and Prince Edward Counties now has 25 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 274 probable cases. Two area long-term care homes and the Quinte 5 floor at Belleville General Hospital are currently in COVID-19 outbreak. More details are available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca.

• In Canada, there are now 18,433 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in 401 deaths. So far, 359,269 individuals have been tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to April 7, 2020

Note: 33 cases did not specify male or female. The age of 3 cases were unknown.

• There are 5,276 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario reported to date in iPHIS. This represents an increase of 550 confirmed cases from the previous report.
• Hastings and Prince Edward Counties now has 25 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 274 probable cases. Two area long-term care homes and the Quinte 5 floor at Belleville General Hospital are currently in COVID-19 outbreak. More details are available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca.
• In Canada, there are now 18,433 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in 401 deaths. So far, 359,269 individuals have been tested.
• •  
  • 36.4% of cases are 60 years of age and older.
  • Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 51.8% of cases.
• 12.4% of cases were hospitalized.
• 174 deaths have been reported (please note there may be a reporting delay for deaths in iPHIS). This is an increase of 21 deaths from the previous report.
• Fifty-eight outbreaks have been reported in long-term care homes.

Federal

Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit and the Canadian Wage Subsidy Program

• Negotiations are underway among federal parties so that the House of Commons can quickly pass legislation to support the Canadian Wage Subsidy Program (CEWS).
• Public servants are working around the clock to process the thousands of applications received under the Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit.

Procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Prime Minister Trudeau emphasized yesterday the need for "a sustainable and stable supply at home" of PPE, and announced the following developments to achieve that:

• Signed letters of intent with a number of partners, including Thornhill Medical, CAE, Ventilators for Canadians and a group led by Starfish Medical.
• 30,000 ventilators to be made in Canada and ready in the weeks to come.
• More than 20 companies including Arc'teryx, Stanfields and Canada Goose will produce supplies such as gloves and medical gowns.
• Some 500,000 N95 respirators from 3M are expected to arrive from the U.S. on Wednesday.
• Canada is seeing some innovations to produce PPE (e.g. a Canadian Nobel prize winning researcher is leading a team of scientists to make ventilators; and Autoliv is making medical gowns out of material normally used for making air-bags).

Provincial

• Premier Ford applauded the Ontario spirit demonstrated by the donation of thousands of masks from various sources. He emphasized the importance of a made-in-Ontario approach to reduce our reliance of PPE from foreign sources.

• Premier Ford also declared the Easter Bunny an essential service under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act. The statement was aimed to reassure and help kids cope during the pandemic. The order also confirmed the Easter Bunny is not allowed to deliver treats in parks, playgrounds or any outdoor recreational amenities in Ontario, which were recently closed due to physical distancing regulations.

• The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced a provincial emergency order on Tuesday that will allow authorized cannabis retail stores to offer delivery and curbside pick-up. Cannabis stores were among the closures announced in the revised list of essential services on April 3.

Call for Health Care Workers

In their call for "all hands on deck," Premier Ford and Health Minister Elliott asked those with a health background and not currently working to help increase the province's frontline capacity be it in hospitals, clinics or assessment centres. For this purpose, the province:

• Launched an online portal to help match available health care workers with employers. The portal will be used to help match the availability and skillsets of frontline health care workers to those employers in need of assistance with a variety of public health functions such as case and contact management.
• Is recruiting health care providers who are:
  • Retired or non-active health care professionals.
  • Internationally educated health care professionals.
  • Students.
  • Volunteers.
• Employers and interested health care professionals can register online; registrants will receive an email notification if matched.

Supporting Indigenous Communities

Indigenous Affairs Minister Rickford provided more details as to how the $37 million announced earlier to support outbreak planning, prevention and mitigation efforts of Indigenous people and communities will be allocated.

• $16.4 million from the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs will provide emergency funds for food, household goods, critical supplies, transportation, and support and care, responsive services and supports for urban Indigenous people, self-isolation facilities in remote and northern communities, prevention and awareness efforts, and pandemic planning.
• $10 million from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to support Indigenous communities and agencies in responding to the needs of vulnerable children, families and elders during the outbreak.
• $7.4 million from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to help social service providers, charities and non-profits delivering critical housing services to Indigenous people living off-reserve.
• $4 million from the Ministry of Transportation to ensure continued service to remote and northern airports, enabling essential goods and services to continue reaching isolated communities.

Local

• Yesterday, CFB Trenton welcomed the return of over 100 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members of Operation UNIFIER, returning to Canada from Ukraine. The CAF members will remain in quarantine at Yukon Lodge on the base for 14 days, in accordance with the Government of Canada guidelines for persons returning to Canada from overseas. Returning members were screened prior to boarding the plane to return to Canada and will not be permitted to leave the Yukon Lodge facilities except for recreation time in designated areas.

• In Belleville, in keeping with the Ontario Government’s emergency order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to close all outdoor recreational amenities, both City boat launches have been closed to the public until further notice. Barricades and signage will be installed at both the Herchimer Avenue and South George Street launches.

• Hastings County has issued a request for proposals from community organizations looking for financial support for their COVID-19 response activities. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, April 14.

• The Municipality of Tweed issued a release yesterday stating that The Municipality of Tweed Waste Site and Recycling Centre is considered an essential service and will continue to operate with regular hours. Changes to limit the number of vehicles (5 maximum) and to create two recycling stations have been introduced.

• Quinte West confirmed for residents today that garbage and recycling pick-up will be taking place without change or interruption over Easter Weekend, along with a reminder that one bag tag per week until April 30 is free.

Public Health

• The time has been changed for tomorrow’s Facebook Live COVID-19 update with Dr. Oglaza. It will now begin earlier at 11 am. Visit https://www.facebook.com/hpepublichealth/ on Thursday, April 9 to participate.

• As part of an awareness campaign to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community, HPEPH issued a release earlier today urging residents to celebrate the long weekend only with members of their household. In the release, Dr. Oglaza stated “I want to remind residents that these restrictions are temporary and making every effort to distance yourself from others during this critical time will help prevent local spread of COVID-19, will reduce the number of people who get sick in our community, and ultimately will save lives.”

• The Healthy Families Team at HPEPH has created a document about the effects of COVID-19 on pregnancy and breastfeeding, based on recommendations from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. The document contains guidance and useful information for pregnant and nursing mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions can be directed to the CARELine by calling 613-966-5500/1-866-267-2803, ext. 223, texting 450-990-5551, or emailing CARELine@hpeph.ca.

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

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: klarose@hpeph.ca

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