For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

April 5, 2022

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

Publicly funded PCR testing is now limited to symptomatic high-risk individuals, and individuals who work in high-risk settings. This change came into effect on Dec. 31, 2021 and as a result, positive cases confirmed by PCR testing will underestimate the true number of individuals with COVID-19 in the community.

  • As of April 4, 2022 Hastings and Prince Edward Counties have 340 active high-risk cases and HPEPH is reporting a total of 48 deaths in the region. There were 158 new high-risk cases reported on April 4.
    • There are 10 local high-risk settings experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak; additional outbreak details can be found online.
    • More information is available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca
  • Vaccinations among residents 5 and older:
    • First Dose: 146,648 (89%)
    • Second Dose: 137,232 (83%)

Ontario is reporting 1,991 new cases today. 1,091 individuals are hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Ontario with 173 individuals in the ICU due to COVID-19 related illness.

In Canada, as of April 5, 2022, there are 3,510,335 total cases of COVID-19 with 168,201 active cases and 3,304,413 resolved. To date, there have been 37,721 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 59,642,149 individuals tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to April 4, 2022

Report

Number

Percentage

Number of Cases

1,176,677

N/A

Change from previous report (new cases)

1,991

0.2% increase

Resolved

1,139,179

96.8

Change from previous report

2,117

0.2% increase

Total number of deaths

12,479

1.1

Total tests completed

23,608,459

N/A

Total test completed in the previous day

14,474

N/A

Currently under investigation

8,643

N/A

Local Updates

Community Conversations: equity, diversity and inclusion

United Way Hastings & Prince Edward in partnership with United Way Northumberland and a host of community collaborators, has created the Community Conversations project to start dialogue and fulsome conversation with our community around the topics of equity, diversity and inclusion. This project will include a series of conversations in order to learn alongside community members.

First session: Wednesday – April 6 @ 6pm

Learn more at unitedwayhpe.ca/community-conversations-sessions/

HPEPH News

Media Release: HPEPH recognizes community partners as COVID-19 mass immunization clinics wind down

COVID-19 Clinic Locations and Schedules

COVID-19 vaccination is currently available:

Additional dates and times may be added. Check the HPEPH COVID-19 Vaccines page regularly for the most up-to-date information.

Provincial

Ontario Introduces a Plan to Stay Open

  • Ontario is introducing A Plan to Stay Open, which includes legislation that, if passed, will expand on policies and measures already in place to ensure the province is able to stay open by building a stronger, more resilient health care system that is better able to respond to crisis.
  • A Plan to Stay Open, which includes the Pandemic and Emergency Preparedness Act, 2022, will, if passed, recruit and retain more doctors, nurses and personal support workers, further expand domestic production of critical supplies like masks and vaccines and will continue building health care infrastructure so hospitals have the capacity to delver high-quality care to treat more patients.

Ontario Extends Access to Free Rapid Antigen Tests

To support the easing of public health measures and a safe re-opening, Ontario will continue to provide free rapid antigen tests to the general public, childcare settings, workplaces, hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes, and other congregate care settings until at least July 31, 2022.

Ontario Invests in Innovative Life Sciences Technologies to Strengthen Pandemic Supply Chain

  • The Ontario government is supporting an investment of more than $3.7 million by Toronto Research Chemicals (TRC) to develop a line for chemicals used in the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits, including those used for COVID-19 detection.

Federal

Statement from the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada on April 1, 2022

  • Daily average case counts have increased by 28% nationally, indicating a resurgence is underway at the national level (Mar 25-31, 2022). Likewise, laboratory test positivity during the latest 7 day period (Mar 23-29, 2022) increased to 16%, and community wastewater data signal a rising trend in a number of local areas.
  • The latest provincial and territorial data shows that the average number of people with COVID-19 being treated in hospitals each day during the most recent 7-day period (Mar 25-31, 2022), was 4% higher than last week. During the same time period, the number of people who were being treated in intensive care units (ICU) daily decreased by 4% compared to the prior week, and an average of 36 deaths were reported daily (Mar 25-31, 2022).
  • The latest provincial and territorial data indicate that over 81% of the total population are now fully vaccinated. Age-specific vaccine coverage data, as of March 27, 2022, show that over 88% of people 12 years or older have at least one dose and over 85% are fully vaccinated, while among children aged 5-11 years of age, 57% have at least one dose.

Indigenous Services Canada COVID-19 update — Week of March 31, 2022

  • As of Tuesday, March 29, 2022, over 88% of individuals aged 12 and older in First Nations, Inuit and territorial communities have received a second dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine, and over 29% have received a third dose. Over 52% of children aged five to 11 have received at least one dose.
  • As of Wednesday, March 30, 2022, the following case counts have been reported from First Nations communities:
    • 94,308 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases
    • 2,766 active cases
    • 3,104 hospitalizations
    • 91,743 recovered cases
    • 689 deaths

Canada commits $2 billion in additional health care funding to clear backlogs and support hundreds of thousands of additional surgeries

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed an estimated 700,000 surgeries and other medical procedures, resulting in an increase of waitlists and backlogs.
  • The federal government introduced Bill C-17 in the House of Commons, which would provide an additional $2 billion one-time top-up to provinces and territories, distributed equally per capita. This amount—in addition to the $4.5 billion Canada Health Transfer (CHT) top-up provided since the start of the pandemic—would further help provinces and territories to address immediate pandemic-related health care system pressures, particularly the backlogs of surgeries, medical procedures and diagnostics.

UN Research Roadmap guides investments in research to support global recovery from COVID-19 pandemic

  • In November 2020, the United Nations released the UN Roadmap for the COVID-19 Recovery to coordinate and inspire global investments in research that supports a science-based recovery from the pandemic. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) led the development of the Roadmap with 37 other funding agencies in Canada and other countries.
  • Earlier this year, to further strengthen Canada’s research capability, the Government of Canada announced the creation of the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies. The Research Centre, which is housed within CIHR, collaborates with other federal departments and agencies, as well as stakeholders domestically and internationally.
  • CIHR and its partners will support two new research initiatives that align with the Roadmap: a $20M investment in Women RISE: Research to support women’s health and economic empowerment for an equitable COVID-19 recovery, led by Canada’s International Development Research Centre; and a $24 million investment in a New Frontiers in Research Fund 2022 Special Call: Research for Postpandemic Recovery.

Government of Canada launches second cycle of national survey to assess the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic

  • The Government of Canada is launching a second cycle of the Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey (CCAHS). This national survey, led by Statistics Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF), aims to better understand the impacts of the pandemic on the health and well-being of Canadians.
  • The development of this survey will estimate the prevalence of post COVID-19 condition (commonly known as long COVID) in Canada, and will provide information on the risk factors, symptoms and impacts of this condition on daily functioning.
  • Across all ten provinces, 100,000 randomly selected Canadians aged 18 years and older will have received invitations from Statistics Canada to participate in the survey.

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is situated and provides services on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee people.