For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

April 7, 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 24 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 287 probable cases. Two area long-term care homes and 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 17,063 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in 345 deaths. So far, 334,848 individuals have been tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to April 6, 2020

Note: 26 cases did not specify male or female. The age of three cases were unknown.

• There are 4,726 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario reported to date in iPHIS. This represents an increase of 379 confirmed cases from the previous report.
  • 46.8% of cases are male, 52.7% are female.
  • 35.5% of cases are 60 years of age and older.
  • Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 51.5% of cases.
• Of all cases, 19.1% had travelled in the 14 days prior to becoming ill, 14.7% had close contact with a confirmed case, 19.1% had community exposure and 47.0% have exposure information pending.
• 12.2% of cases were hospitalized and 153 deaths have been reported (please note there may be a reporting delay for deaths in iPHIS).
• Fifty-one outbreaks have been reported in long-term care homes.

Federal

Prime Minister Trudeau noted yesterday that while there are financial benefits for those who lost their jobs due to COVID-19, he recognizes that others who are not eligible for CERB need support. "Whatever situation you are in, we are working to help you", he emphasized. Outlined below are some of the other announcements made by the Prime Minister.

Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB)

• The application process opened yesterday with anyone born in the months of January, February or March able to apply; others are encouraged to submit their applications later in the week, with specific days assigned according to month of birth.
• Help is on its way for those groups that are left out of the CERB (e.g. employees who saw a decrease in the number of hours, students needing jobs).

Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)

• The government is drafting legislation and recalling Parliament soon to put the CEWS in place. Finance Minister Morneau will provide more details soon.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Supplies

• Prime Minister Trudeau indicated that productive discussions are going on with the United States and he is expecting more medical supplies to be delivered to Canada soon.
• The Public Health Agency of Canada has asked Canadians not to dispose of their used PPE (e.g. face shields, safety glasses), but to save them for potential reuse. While waiting on the evidence and guidance for reuse, Ontario Health is asking hospitals to store used PPE securely and is distributing a survey to understand hospital capacity for reprocessing, based on promising technologies to safely reuse PPE.

Wearing Masks

• When asked about wearing a mask, Dr. Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, indicated that "Canadians can take this additional measure [in] instances where social distancing is difficult to maintain" (e.g. on a crowded bus or grocery store). Wearing a non-medical mask is another way to cover your mouth and nose to prevent your respiratory droplets from contaminating others or landing on surfaces. Medical masks, including surgical, medical procedure face masks and respirators (like N95 masks), must be kept for health care workers and others providing direct care to COVID-19 patients.

Provincial

While explaining that "our supplies are strained ", Premier Ford stressed yesterday the importance of following public health measures to avoid Ontario experiencing an extreme situation like that of New York, Italy or Spain. He further mentioned that with the growing international demand for medical supplies and the United States blocking masks from crossing the border, Ontario's supplies are limited. As the Premier explores every possible avenue to secure these supplies, he called on everyone to help stop the spread, stay home and save lives.

When asked by the media to identify indicators that some current measures could be lifted, Dr. Williams explained that former Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown, is heading up a public health measures working table to examine these and other related issues in order to provide recommendations to government. As testing capacity has been increased, Dr. Barbara Jaffe indicated that we can expect to see more testing, especially in key settings and groups (e.g. long-term care).

Protecting First Responders

The following emergency measures were announced to protect Ontario's first responders and stop the spread of COVID-19:

• Police, firefighters and paramedics are allowed to obtain COVID-19 positive status information about individuals with whom they come into contact, so they can take the needed precautions.
• The information that can be obtained is limited to an individual's name, address, date of birth, and whether the individual has had a positive COVID-19 test result.
• Strict protocols have been developed to limit access this information.

Relief for Remote Northern Property Taxpayers

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ontario government is deferring $15 million in property taxes for people and businesses in parts of Northern Ontario located outside of municipal boundaries:

• Taxpayers will have 90 extra days to pay their property taxes without incurring interest or penalties.
• The province will continue to make payments to Local Roads and Services Boards, as scheduled, to ensure this deferral does not have a financial impact on these partners who provide additional services in these remote communities.

Supporting Families

More information is now available about the $300M announced earlier by the Ontario government in direct financial support to parents while Ontario schools and child care centres remain closed. Here are the details:

• The new Support for Families initiative offers a one-time payment of:
  • $200 per child 0 to 12 years of age; and
  • $250 for those 0 to 21 years of age with special needs.
• As of yesterday, families can complete a simple online application here, to access this financial support.
• Parents already receiving Support for Parents payments (due to recent labour disruptions at schools) through direct deposit will be automatically eligible for this financial support and do not need to submit a new application.

Local

• In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, the opening of the Quinte West Farmer’s Market has been postponed until further notice. Applications from vendors are still being accepted electronically and by mail.

• In addition to the closure of the Trent Port Marina, Quinte West has also closed all public boat launches until further notice.

• The city of Belleville has an updated transit schedule for the Easter long weekend:
  • Thursday, April 9: Transit On-Demand from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. Office closed.
  • Friday, April 10: NO SERVICE
  • Saturday, April 11: Transit On-Demand from 5:30 a.m. to 12 a.m.
  • Sunday, April 12: Transit On-Demand from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.
  • Monday, April 13: Transit On-Demand from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. Office closed.
• Yesterday, the City of Belleville reminded residents that the closure of the City of Belleville’s parks and outdoor recreational amenities is mandatory in alignment with the Ontario Government’s emergency order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act to close all outdoor recreational amenities. These closures will remain in place until further notice. This order closes all communal or shared, public or private, outdoor recreational amenities everywhere in Ontario. The public is asked to respect these changes. Signage has been posted throughout the City indicating the closures. City bylaw officers are working in cooperation with Belleville Police Service to ensure the rules are being followed and will issue fines or more severe penalties to anyone not doing so.

• Prince Edward County reminded all short term accommodation providers that, as per the province’s revision to essential businesses, no short term accommodations are permitted after April 4 for at least the following fourteen days with the possibility of extension.

• The County also assured the community that enhanced safety measures remain in effect at H.J. McFarland Memorial Home, featuring active screening, restricted visitation and increased physical distancing between residents and staff.

Public Health

• Dr. Olgaza, Medical Officer of Health and CEO at Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, will be broadcasting his third COVDI-19 live facebook update on Thursday, April 9 at 1pm on the HPEPH facebook page. The first two live broadcasts have proven an effective platform for sharing information and addressing questions within the community and are expected to continue as a weekly feature.

• The HPEPH COVID-19 information line at 613-966-5500 will be operating this Easter long weekend. On Friday, April 10 and Monday, April 13 the hours will be reduced to the weekend hours of 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Those with COVID-19 questions are reminded to visit our website hpePublicHealth.ca where we continuously update our Frequently Asked Questions section.

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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