For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

April 23, 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 have 37 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 238 probable cases, with 17 lab-confirmed cases having recovered.
    • Approximately 1,401 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, with a 3% positivity rate.
    • Hastings Manor continues to be in COVID-19 outbreak and Moira Place in Tweed has now declared a COVID-19 outbreak.
    • More details are available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca.
  • In Canada, there are 40,789 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in 2,028 deaths. To date, over 612,192 individuals have been tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to April 22, 2020

  Number      Percentage
Number of cases 12,879 N/A
Change from previous report 634 5.2% increase
Resolved 6,680 51.9
Deceased 713 5.5
Demographics    
Male 5,408 42.0
Female 7,342 57.0
19 and under 284 2.2
20-39 2,914 22.6
40-59 3,945 30.6
60-79 2,909 22.6
80 and over 2,816 21.9
Testing    
Total tests completed 194,745 N/A
Total tests completed in the previous day 10,214 N/A
Currently under investigation 6,757 N/A
Hospitalizations    
Number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 887 N/A
Number of patients in ICU with COVID-19 233 N/A
Number of patients in ICU on a ventilator with COVID-19      185

N/A

Note: 129 cases did not specify male or female. Eleven cases had an unknown age.

  • There are 12,879 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario reported to date in iPHIS. This represents an increase of 634 confirmed cases from the previous report.
    • 42.0% of cases are male, 57.0% are female.
    • 44.5% of cases are 60 years of age and older.
    • Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 59.6% of cases.
    • 11.7% of cases were hospitalized.
  • 713 deaths have been reported (please note there may be a reporting delay for deaths in iPHIS). This is an increase of 54 deaths from the previous report.
  • 135 outbreaks have been reported in long-term care homes. This is an increase of 10 outbreaks from the previous report.
  • 358 deaths have been reported among residents/patients in long-term care homes. This is an increase of 63 deaths from the previous report.

Federal

Support Package for Students

Prime Minister Trudeau announced a $9B support package for post-secondary students and recent graduates which included the following:

  • Launching Canada Emergency Student Benefit, which would:
    • provide support to students and new graduates who are not eligible for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
    • provide $1,250 per month for eligible students or $1,750 per month for eligible students with dependents or disabilities, from May to August 2020.
  • Launching Canada Student Service Grant, which will:
    • help students gain valuable work experience and skills while they help their communities during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
    • provide up to $5,000 for their education in the fall, for the students who choose to do national service and serve their communities.
  • Doubling Canada Student Grants in 2020-21 for:
    • all eligible full-time students - up to $6,000.
    • part-time students - up to $3,600.
    • students with permanent disabilities and students with dependents.
  • Broadening eligibility for Student Financial Assistance by:
    • removing the expected student's and spouse's contributions in 2020-21, in recognition that many students and families will struggle to save for school this year.
  • Enhancing the Canada Student Loans Program by:
    • raising the maximum weekly amount that can be provided to a student in 2020-21 from $210 to $350.
  • Providing an additional $75.2M in 2020-21 as support for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation students pursuing post-secondary education.
  • Providing $291.6M to the federal granting councils to extend expiring federal graduate research scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships, and supplement existing federal research grants.
  • Enhancing work opportunities for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows through the National Research Council of Canada.

Canadians Being Encouraged to Participate in Agriculture Sector

  • Foreign farm workers aren't yet half of what is required. While more foreign workers are expected to arrive in May, the agrifood sector appears headed for an even greater labour shortfall than originally feared.
  • There were about 11,000 temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada when new travel rules to prevent the spread of COVID -19 went into effect in early April. Since then about 6,600 more have arrived and another 4,300 are expected by the end of April.
  • Agriculture Canada launched on April 22 its Step up to the plate–Help feed Canadians, an online portal to link Canadians with essential food production jobs. It “will make it easier for candidates, including students, to find rewarding jobs in their community, and learn more about the skills and training needed to take on these positions.”

Provincial

Impact of the Action Plan

Premier Ford and Health Minister Elliott provided an update on the progress of implementing the COVID-19 Action Plan for Protecting Long-Term Care Homes to help stop and contain the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care homes. Here is an overview of the key activities completed under this plan:

  • Assisted 20 long-term care homes, which were previously experiencing outbreaks, to become outbreak-free.
  • Increased testing of both symptomatic and asymptomatic staff and residents in long term care, approximately 11,600 tests have been completed.
  • Conducted additional testing of asymptomatic residents and staff outside of the testing guidance at 21 long-term care homes, to help understand the spread of the virus.
  • Set up a 24/7 Long-Term Care COVID-19 Response Team, which has helped more than 30 homes by putting in place infection control protocols, resolving staffing issues, and fulfilling personal protective equipment needs.
  • Launched 31 infection prevention and control interventions, which are currently in progress, with six assessments already completed.
  • Continued to identify critical 24-, 48-, and 72-hour help that homes need by matching qualified people and volunteers who can help with duties, including nursing support and cleaning.
  • Responded to every escalated request for personal protective equipment from long-term care homes within 24 hours.
  • Worked with hospitals across the province to deploy additional staffing and infection prevention controls in long-term care homes.
  • Provided over 400 job matches for long-term care homes through the province's Health Workforce Matching Portal, with over half of Ontario's long-term care homes now using the portal.

Request for Federal support

  • Despite this progress, the Premier announced today that the province will be making a formal request to the federal government to secure reinforcements from Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian Armed Forces for:
    • staffing relief
    • operations and coordination for medical care
    • logistics
    • general assistance to support day-to-day operations
  • When questioned by the media about why Ontario has not seen higher testing rates, the Premier indicated that he was confident that the targets set would be achieved by the end of the month and the province was following the approach laid out by Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health.
  • While the Premier had indicated earlier yesterday that things might start to open up over the May 24th long weekend, he later clarified that there were many factors that would influence the timing of public health measures being lifted and it's still premature to identify a specific date. He also said that Education Minister Lecce would provide more clarity in the coming days about any plans related to reopening schools.

Local

  • The City of Qunite West has expanded their list of COVID-19 related closures to include the Canada Day celebrations usually held at and around Centennial Park.

  • To assist with physical distancing measures, Quinte West has erected signs for both bridges spanning the Trent River requesting that pedestrians cross the bridge with the direction of traffic.

  • The City of Belleville has extended residents’ March parking and bus passes until the end of May. Those with March parking permits and transit passes may continue to use these passesuntil the end of May, at which time the situation will be assessed and further action determined.

  • Although currently no cases of COVID-19 have been reported at H.J. McFarland Memorial Home, at the direction of the Ontario government, all residents and employees at H.J. McFarland Memorial Home will be tested for COVID-19. Public health units across the province have been directed to develop a plan to test all residents and employees of long-term care facilities. Broad testing will help officials understand the prevalence of COVID-19 in long-term care homes and inform future planning. To date, tests have been conducted according to provincial directives, with all results coming back negative.

Public Health
  • Hastings Prince Edward Public Health has launched a new online reporting system to provide the public with more information about COVID-19 cases and testing in the region. The online dashboard will be updated daily with the number of local lab-confirmed cases, probable cases, hospitalizations, and deaths related to the virus. In addition, the dashboard provides general information about the number of cases identified across the region and cases associated with special groups such as long-term care home residents and health care workers. Information about the number of tests being administered locally, and associated results, is also included.
  • HPEPH has updated the employer information package. Highlights of the update include the addition of new symptoms to the self-assessment, new signage that includes additional symptoms, and updated key messages for employers.
  • Today's Facebook live COVID-19 update with Dr. Oglaza and Dr. Toumishey is available for viewing on the HPEPH facebook page.

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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