Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Health Care Providers

October 6, 2020

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

In this Issue:

  1. Updated Provincial COVID-19 Guidance
  2. HPEPH Virtual Health Care Provider Event Slide Deck
  3. HPEPH COVID-19 Response & Essential Services

Updated Provincial COVID-19 Guidance

COVID-19 Provincial Testing Guidance has been updated recently to include recommendations that Ontarians should only seek testing at assessment centres if you are:

  • Showing COVID-19 symptoms;
  • Have been exposed to a confirmed case of the virus, as informed by your public health unit or exposure notification through the COVID Alert app;
  • A resident or work in a setting that has a COVID-19 outbreak, as identified and informed by your local public health unit; and
  • Eligible for testing as part of a targeted testing initiative directed by the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Long-Term Care.

The province released updated Testing and Clearance Guidance effective October 1, 2020.

  • Individuals with a high-risk exposure (have travelled out of the country OR have had contact with positive case) they must isolate regardless of test result for a minimum of 14 days from last exposure.
  • Individuals who are advised to seek testing who do not get tested, they, and household members are to isolate for 10 days from symptom onset, AND symptoms have been improving for 24 hours AND they do not have a fever (without medication).
  • Individuals who are advised to seek testing and are waiting for test results should isolate until they receive a negative test result AND their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours AND they do not have a fever (without medication)
  • Individuals who have mild to moderate symptoms and receive positive test results must isolate for 10 days from symptom onset (or from testing date if asymptomatic) AND until symptoms have been improving for 24 hours AND they do not have a fever (without medication).
  • Individuals with severe illness or severe immune compromise who receive positive test results must isolate for 20 days from symptom onset AND symptoms have been improving for 24 hours AND they do not have a fever (without medication).

The updated COVID-19 Guidance Documents and further COVID-19 information can be found on our COVID-19 Resources for Health Care Providers page.

HPEPH Virtual Health Care Provider Event Slide Deck

On September 30, HPEPH’s Immunization and Infectious Disease teams hosted a first-ever virtual health care provider workshop on topics related to Influenza, COVID-19 and other local updates. Workshop participants received an overview of the epidemiology of COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza in Ontario and Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, discussed opportunities for infection prevention and control and outbreak management, and reviewed updated guidance documents. We had an overwhelming response with more than 70 health care providers in attendance of this virtual workshop offered via TurboMeeting. The slide deck can be assessed by visiting this link. If you attended the workshop and have not already completed a short-follow up survey, please provide your feedback by October 7.

HPEPH COVID-19 Response & Essential Services

To support COVID-19 response this fall, HPEPH staff are being temporarily reassigned to respond to COVID-19 cases and contact tracing, enquiries and operational demands. The HPEPH response to COVID-19 includes rigorous case management and contact tracing, ongoing community monitoring, providing up-to-date information to the public and health care providers (including dedicated COVID-19 phone lines), responding to community enquiries, and providing infection control support to our schools, long term care facilities and the community. HPEPH will continue to provide select public health services, prioritizing those with the highest community need. These include:

  • Seniors oral health emergencies
  • Healthy Babies Healthy Children screening
  • Health hazard and drinking water emergencies 
  • Control of communicable and infectious diseases
  • Reproductive health supports
  • Childhood immunizations

We will be reaching out to our community partners to share our plan and ask that they provide supplementary support to our priority populations during this time, to ensure that community needs continue to be met while we temporarily scale back some of our regular services. While our service delivery is changing to redeploy staff to pandemic preparedness, meeting local public health needs continues to be our top priority.

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HPEPH is offering services by appointment only. We remain dedicated to protecting our community by providing local HCPs and community members with new information as it becomes available. Current information on COVID-19 specifically for health care providers can be found at hpePublicHealth.ca, Ontario Ministry of Health and at publichealthontario.ca.

Back to Summary

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: kkhani@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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