For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

January 12, 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 334 cumulative lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 23 active, 306 resolved and 5 deceased. There was 1 new case reported today.
  • There is one local long-term care facility experiencing COVID-19 outbreak; additional outbreak details can be found online.
  • More information is available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca
• Ontario is reporting 2,903 cases of COVID-19 including 8 new cases of the UK variant and 41 deaths as nearly 44,800 tests have been completed. There are 837 new cases in Toronto, 545 in Peel, and 249 in York Region.
   
• In Canada, as at January 11, 2021, there are 668,181 total cases of COVID-19 with 82,522 active cases and 568,573 recovered. To date, there have been 17,086 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 14,646,158 individuals tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to January 11, 2021

Summary of Cases in Ontario Schools - Updated January 12, 2021.

Note, this data is for the in-school northern region schools by health unit district: Algoma, North Bay Parry Sound, Northwestern, Porcupine, Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timiskaming.

Local Updates

• Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board: At a special public meeting yesterday, the Board of Trustees approved a readiness plan for international education. The plan includes mechanisms to address quarantining protocols, support international students & host families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Prince Edward County: The County COVID-19 Help Line is seeking volunteers to help with shopping and food deliveries for community members who are unable to or are not comfortable going into grocery stores or pharmacies.
• Quinte West: Quinte West city council passed a motion at its meeting yesterday to waive parking fees in Quinte West until the end of Ontario’s lockdown currently scheduled for January 23.

Provincial

Ontario declares second provincial emergency to address Covid-19 crisis and save lives

In response to a doubling in Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks, the Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and other health experts, is immediately declaring a second provincial emergency under s 7.0.1(1) of the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act (EMPCA).

• Effective January 14, 2021, the government is issuing a stay-at-home order requiring everyone to remain at home with exceptions for essential purposes, such as grocery store or pharmacy.
• Outdoor organized public and social gatherings are further restricted to a limit of 5 people.
• Individuals are required to wear a mask or face covering in the indoor areas of businesses or organizations that are open.  Wearing a mask or face covering is now recommended outdoors when you can't physically distance more than 2 metres.
• All non-essential retail stores must open no earlier than 7 am and close no later than 8 pm. The restricted hours of operation do not apply to stores that primarily sell food, pharmacies, gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants for takeout or delivery.
• Non-essential construction is further restricted, including below-grade construction, exempting survey.
• These measures will come into effect between Tuesday, January 12 and Thursday, January 14, 2021.

Update on COVID-19 Projections (Presentation):

• Growth in cases has accelerated and is over 7% on the worst days.
• Almost 40% of long-term care (LTC) homes have active COVID-19 outbreaks. Since January first 198 LTC residents and 2 LTC staff have died of COVID-19. Forecasts suggest more deaths in wave 2 in long-term care than in wave 1.
• COVID-19 ICU occupancy is now over 400 beds. Surgeries are being cancelled and the access to care deficit will continue to increase with real consequences for health.
• Mobility, and contacts between people have not decreased with the current restrictions. Survey data show that the majority of Ontarians are helping limit spread by following them. However, case numbers will not decline until more of the population follows their example.
• A new variant of concern of SARS-CoV-2 (B117) could drive much higher case counts, ICU occupancy and mortality if community transmission occurs. The doubling time for cases could drop by more than 2/3. This new variant is now in Ontario.
• Without significant reductions in contacts, the health system will be overwhelmed and mortality will exceed the first wave totals before a vaccine has time to take effect.
• "We're at a dangerous point," said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, at a morning briefing in Toronto.
• "The growth of the pandemic is particularly acute right now," he added, noting that the growth in new daily cases is above seven per cent "on our worst days," well into worst-case scenario territory for the outlook of the illness in the province.

Ontario Expands Emergency Child Care Eligibility for Frontline Workers:

• Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced Saturday the emergency childcare program will be expanded to more frontline workers, who may not be able to support their child’s learning or care at home because they are performing in-person critical roles in their communities.

Safety-Enhancement Measures in Schools:

• Education Minister Lecce indicated the government has been working on a plan to introduce enhanced safety measures in school that is expected to be operationalized by January 11.
• The Minister said the extension of students staying on virtual learning will give the government more time to work with the Chief Medical Officer of Health to roll out this plan.
• Minister Lecce announced the government will expand the targeted surveillance program in schools to offer asymptomatic testing throughout the province.
• He said that “all schools and all public health units will be eligible to have the capacity and the testing kits required to do that type of surveillance testing.”
• So far, 9,000 tests have been completed in schools located in hotspots with an aggregate positivity rate of about roughly 2% below the provincial average.
• The government will also invest $380M for HVAC and ventilation improvements, additional PPE, custodial cleaning staff and general staffing needs.
• Dr. Yaffe noted there was a dramatic increase since the middle of December in the number of children infected with COVID-19.

Federal

International Travellers accessing Recovery Benefits during Mandatory Quarantine:

• Federal government will be proposing legislation so that, retroactive to January 3, 2021, all international travellers who need to quarantine upon return to Canada, including people returning from vacation, visiting loved ones, and attending to real estate matters abroad, will not be eligible to receive support from any of the Canada Recovery Benefits for the period of their mandatory quarantine. Individuals who are exempt from the mandatory quarantine requirements under the Quarantine Act, such as health care workers who need to cross the border for work, will be eligible to apply following their return to the country.

Canada’s COVID-19 Vaccine Strategy:

• Prime Minister Trudeau noted over 124,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were delivered to 68 sites across the country. Over 208,000 Pfizer doses will be delivered weekly for the rest of January.
• Over 171,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be delivered to the provinces and territories by the end of this week.
• Canada is on track to receive approximately 1.3 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine by the end of January.
• The Prime Minister said quantities of both the Pfizer and Modern vaccine will scale up in February.
• Major General Fortin indicated that Pfizer has updated their guidelines and procedures for the transportation of their vaccine within the past week. He noted “this means more options for that vaccine to be transported and administered to more sites and in smaller amounts, and that helps…provinces in the administration of the vaccine."

Reporting on Adverse Effects:

• Canada's Chief Public Officer Dr. Tam noted the Public Health Agency of Canada is working closely with provinces and territories, Health Canada regulators and other federal jurisdictions to collect information on COVID-19 vaccine safety.
• Starting January 11 that information will be posted on Canada.ca and updated weekly on Friday afternoons.
• The weekly COVID-19 safety report will include information on any adverse effects following immunization but these may not necessarily have been caused by the vaccine. Dr. Tam noted that adverse effects can range from common, mild events such as soreness at the site of injection or a slight fever to more rare, serious events such as a severe allergic reaction.
• As of January 1, there have been over 115,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered across Canada with nine adverse events reported. There have been no unexpected vaccine safety issues identified to date.
• As of January 8, provinces and territories have reported 14 cases of a virus variant first reported in the United Kingdom (UK) and one individual with a variant first reported in South

Other News

• The Guidance for Prioritizing Health Care Workers for COVID-19 Vaccination is now available on the ministry website.
• Ontario Health Releases New Memo on Maximizing System Capacity:
  • Yesterday, Ontario Health released a memo outlining new and immediate steps that hospitals must take to provide the necessary care for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients across the province in the weeks ahead. It builds on the memo sent by Ontario Health on December 15, 2020 that reflects the October 2020 evidence-based document Optimizing Care Through COVID-19 Transmission Scenarios.
  • Updated projections show that by January 24, 2021, the province will see more than 500 COVID-19 related critical illness patients in intensive care units and over 1,700 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
  • To meet these needs, Ontario Health is asking that the province work as a single, seamless hospital system. This includes accepting patients from other hospitals in and outside of your regions, sharing resources, and prioritizing—so that Ontario can continue to provide safe, effective care to both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients across the province.
• Webinar Alert: The National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health is hosting "Psychosocial Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: A frame of reference from lessons learned through disasters in Canada"
  • Date: Jan 27, 2021 - 3pm EST

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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