Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Health Care Providers

November 23, 2020

From:
Dr. Piotr Oglaza
Medical Officer of Health
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health

In this Issue:

1. Ontario's COVID-19 Response Framework
2. Updated Surveillance Testing Guidelines LTC
3. Influenza Vaccine Orders 
4. Publicly Funded Shingrix now Available to Order
5. Updates to Provincial Guidance

Ontario's COVID-19 Response Framework

The Keeping Ontario Safe and Open Framework describes a gradual, incremental approach to introducing or removing preventive, public health, and workplace safety measures for specific sectors, institutions, and other settings. It categorizes public health unit regions into five levels:

• Green-Prevent (current status for HPEPH),
• Yellow-Protect,
• Orange-Restrict,
• Red-Control, and
• Lockdown (last and urgent resort).

Updated Surveillance Testing Guidelines for Long-Term Care (LTC) Sector

On November 19, 2020, the province released a memorandum to LTCH and an FAQ for Long-Term Care Home Surveillance Testing in response to updated guidance for surveillance testing of staff, volunteers and visitors. Effective Monday, November 23, 2020, the following changes will be made in long-term care homes in public health unit regions in the Orange-Restrict, Red-Control and Lockdown levels under the COVID-19 Response Framework:

• Staff, essential caregivers and support workers who provide direct care to residents need to be tested for COVID-19 weekly and show proof of a negative test result.
• Support workers who do not provide direct care to residents must verbally attest to having received a negative COVID-19 test result in the past two weeks and not subsequently tested positive.

For long-term care homes in regions at the Green-Prevent and Yellow-Protect levels, testing will continue every two weeks for staff, volunteers, caregivers and visitors.

Influenza Vaccine Orders - Please continue to submit your orders

Please continue to submit your Influenza Vaccine Orders to HPEPH. A link to the order form is available at Ministry of Health website or go to www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca and search for flu vaccine order form. All orders must be faxed to 613-966-1813, along with four weeks of fridge temperature logs. HCP flu orders are received and processed by HPEPH’s Vaccine Inventory team as quickly as possible. Please note that flu vaccine orders will be filled based on current inventory levels and you will not necessarily receive all the doses you have requested. Please be cautious of over ordering to decrease potential wastage. Please note that pharmacies get their flu vaccines from Ministry-contracted distributors (not HPEPH).

Publicly Funded Shingrix now Available to Order

The Ontario publicly funded shingles program, available for seniors 65 to 70 years of age, has transitioned from funding Zostavax®ll (Merck Canada Inc.) vaccine to funding the Shingrix® (GSK) vaccine. Seniors aged 65 to 70 years who received the publicly funded Zostavax®ll vaccine are not eligible for the publicly funded Shingrix® vaccine series. As a result of COVID-19, individuals born in 1949 or 1950 (i.e. 70-year olds turning 71 in 2020 or 2021 calendar year) who have missed the opportunity to receive the publicly funded Zostavax®ll are eligible to receive Shingrix® and complete the 2-dose series by December 31, 2021.

Orders can be submitted by fax 613-966-1813 or online at https://hpepublichealth.ca/material/vaccine-sti-order/ along with 4 weeks of fridge temperature logs.

Updates to Provincial Guidance

Several COVID-19 guidance documents have been recently updated and posted to the Ministry’s website. Please review the updated guidance applicable to your health care setting:

• Considerations for Employer Antigen Screening Pilot
• Considerations for Privately-Initiated Testing
• Case & Contact Management Guidance Appendix 9: Management of Individuals with Point-of-Care Results
• Updated Provincial Testing Guidance
• Updated Case Definition
• Updated Quick Reference Public Health Guidance on Testing and Clearance
• The Primary Care Providers in a Community Setting
• The Testing of Asymptomatic Persons in Pharmacies
• The Labour, Delivery and Newborn Care
• The COVID-19 management in schools guidance
• The Child Care Re-Opening guidance
• The Before and After School Programs Kindergarten – Grade 6 guidance

Back to Summary

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: etubbs@hpeph.ca

To report communicable diseases:613-966-5500 x349

To report AEFI or DOPHS: Online / Fax: 613-966-1813 or CDCFAX1@hpeph.ca

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