For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

March 16, 2021

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

• Hastings and Prince Edward Counties have 439 cumulative lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 8 active, 425 resolved and 6 deceased. There were no new cases reported today.
  • There are no local long-term care facilities experiencing COVID-19 outbreak; additional outbreak details can be found online.
  • More information is available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca
• Vaccines administered to date:  13,207
• Fully vaccinated individuals to date:  1,345
• Ontario is reporting 1,074 cases of COVID-19 and 6 deaths as more than 28,500 tests have been completed. There are 313 new cases in Toronto, 199 in Peel, and 101 in York Region.
• In Canada, as at March 15, 2021, there are 890,698 total cases of COVID-19 with 31,630 active cases and 913,047 recovered. To date, there have been 22,495 COVID-19 related deaths and more than 25,996,052 individuals tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to March 16, 2021

Summary of Cases in Ontario Schools - Updated March 16, 2021.

Local Updates

Upcoming Vaccincation Clinics

• March 17 - Loyalist College for 80+ from 9 am to 4 pm
• March 17 - Madoc Township for 80+ from 10 am - 4 pm
• March 18 - Loyalist Colelge for 80+ from 9 am to 4 pm
• March 18 - Bancroft Legion for 80 + from 10 am - 3 pm (BC FHT)
• March 19 - Loyalist College for 80+ from 9 am to 4 pm
• March 19 - Bancroft Legion for Indigenous people from 10 am to 3 pm
• There are no clinics scheduled for March 20 and 21.

Provincial

Quick Summary of Provincial Developments:

• Premier Ford said that Retired General Rick Hillier is stepping down as Chair of Ontario's COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force when his term ends on March 31.
• Over 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have now been administered in Ontario
• New COVID-19 projections released from the Science Advisory and Modelling Consensus Tables show progress has stalled, COVID-19 cases are on the rise and Variants of Concern are responsible for about 42 percent of new daily cases of COVID-19 in Ontario. The province could see in an optimistic scenario under 2,000 cases a day, nearly 6,000 cases per day by April in a more middle scenario and 8,000 in a worst-case scenario.
• Members of these tables anticipate that a third even more restrictive lockdown is inevitable.
• Finance Minister Bethlenfalvy announced that he will be releasing the 2021 Ontario Budget on March 24 which will focus on vaccine distribution, additional resources for the health care sector and initiatives to protect the economic well-being of families, workers and employers.
• The Ontario government is providing $255M to help municipalities and Indigenous program partners respond to an increase in COVID-19 cases in some emergency shelters and help keep vulnerable people safe. The new funding is to protect homeless shelter staff and residents and help prevent more people from becoming homeless.

Ontario Launches Provincial Booking System for COVID-19 Vaccines:

• Individuals who will be turning 80 or older in 2021 (born in 1941 or earlier) and wish to make an appointment — or an individual trusted to make an appointment on their behalf — can visit Ontario.ca/bookvaccine.
• For individuals turning 80 or older in 2021 who do not have internet access, they can call the Provincial Vaccine Information Line at 1-888-999-6488, open Monday to Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• When booking an appointment, individuals will be asked for information from their green Ontario health card, birth date, postal code and email address and/or phone number. At the time of booking, eligible individuals will schedule their first and second vaccination appointments.
• Individuals who still have a red and white health card, or who require assistance with booking, can call the Provincial Vaccine Information Line number at 1-888-999-6488.

More Online Mental Health Supports:

• The Ontario government is investing over $300,000 to expand Stella's Place’s BeanBagChat app that provides virtual mental health services and programs for young adults aged 16 to 29.
• The mental health needs of postsecondary students have been increased dramatically in Ontario. According to the last National College Health Assessment survey of the Canadian student population (2019): 52 per cent of students reported feeling depressed, compared to 46 per cent in 2016; 69 per cent experienced anxiety; 12 per cent of Canada’s students had considered suicide, compared to 14 per cent in 2016; and, 2.8 per cent of students reported having attempted suicide.

Federal

OECD’s 2021 Economic Survey of Canada:

• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) 2021 Economic Survey of Canada reported that:
  • Canada has suffered fewer COVID-19 related deaths than the OECD average and that young women have suffered the largest job losses and household debt remains high.
  • The OECD estimates that Canada will see real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 4.7% this year and confirms that the Canadian economy remains well positioned to weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quick Summary of Federal Developments:

• As of March 14, a total of 3,302 variants of concern have been reported across Canada, including 3,031 B.1.1.7 variants, 220 B.1.351 variants and 51 P.1 variants.
• The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued new advice Tuesday morning stating that AstraZeneca vaccine can and should be given to seniors. The committee said that it considered three “real-world effectiveness studies” to inform its decision to change the recommendations, including evidence from Britain, which has been administering the vaccine to people over 65 years and older since January.
• NACI says if there is a choice, the mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech) should be prioritized for use on seniors, but they no longer recommend against using AstraZeneca for anyone over the age of 65.
• PM Trudeau announced a $400M investment for bike lanes, trails and pedestrian bridges across the country. The Prime Minister said that “this is part of the public transit investment over the next eight years, and the plan to create a million jobs leading to stronger communities and clean air.”
• The Canadian economy gained 259,000 (+1.4%) part and full-time jobs in February. Employment rebounded in industries such as retail trade, accommodation and food services and other industries with a high proportion of low-paying jobs.
• Canada will not reopen the U.S. border until vaccination rates and case counts reach levels that would make doing so safe for Canadians, says Prime Minister Trudeau.
• Trudeau said that, while providing proof of vaccinations is well established when travelling internationally, doing the same within Canada would raise ethical issues.
• “For domestic use, making a difference between people who are vaccinated or not, recognizing that not everyone is going to be able to get vaccinated for different reasons, brings up questions of equality and fairness that I think we need to be very careful about moving forward,” he said. “But internationally, the idea of vaccine credentials I think that's something very much worth looking at.”
• Government of Canada invests in new COVID-19 research projects across the country.

Other News

• International Developments: Media reports indicate Health authorities in France, Germany, Denmark, Norway and Iceland have suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine after some people who had been vaccinated reported the formation of blood clots. The Danish Health Authority, the European Medicines Agency and health authorities in Canada have stated there is
  no evidence of a connection between the vaccine and blood clots.

Useful Links

• HPEPH COVID-19 General Information
• HPEPH COVID-19 Information for Health Care Providers
• How Ontario is responding to COVID-19
• Public Health Ontario Coronavirus Disease
• Canada Coronavirus disease

We want to ensure this bulletin is as useful as possible. Please send your questions, comments and suggestions to etubbs@hpeph.ca

Contact Information: 

To give us your comments: etubbs@hpeph.ca

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