For Municipal Partners

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health
Online Bulletin for Municipal Partners

April 9, 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 25 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 275 probable cases. Two area long-term care homes and the Quinte 5 floor at Belleville General Hospital continue to be in COVID-19 outbreak. More details are available on our website hpePublicHealth.ca.

• In Canada, there are now 19,289 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in 435 deaths. So far, 361,969 individuals have been tested.

Summary of cases of COVID-19: Ontario, January 15, 2020 to April 8, 2020

 Note: 35 cases did not specify male or female. The age of 6 cases were unknown.

• There are 5,759 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario reported to date in iPHIS. This represents an increase of 483 confirmed cases from the previous report.
  • 45.5% of cases are male, 53.8% are female.
  • 37.4% of cases are 60 years of age and older.
  • Greater Toronto Area public health units account for 52.5% of cases.
• 12.5% of cases were hospitalized.
• 200 deaths have been reported (please note there may be a reporting delay for deaths in iPHIS). This is an increase of 26 deaths from the previous report.
• Sixty-nine outbreaks have been reported in long-term care homes.

Federal

During yesterday's press conference, Prime Minister Trudeau stressed that, "when the right time comes... we will be very vigilant as to who is allowed to go back to work, in order to avoid a spike". The Prime Minister also provided the following details related to his government's economic plan, detailed below.

Support for Vulnerable Populations

• Extra measures will be announced soon to support seniors and other vulnerable population groups.
• New measures to support students include:
  • giving employers who hire students through Canada Summer Jobs a 100% wage subsidy.
  • extending the time frame for job placement up to the winter.

Employment Insurance (EI) and Canada's Emergency Relief Benefit

• Since March 15, over 4 million people have applied to access EI benefits.
• Over 1.7 million Canadians applied this week to the CERB and some have already received the benefit.

Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy

• Further flexibility has been added to the program to accommodate the needs of affected businesses, non-profit organizations and charities.
• As charities and non-profits have special needs, they will have the option to choose whether they want to include government funding in calculating any change in their revenue.
• Businesses will:
  • get up to $847 a week per employee retroactive to March 15.
  • have the option to compare revenues to January and February months of this year as the reference points, or the same month as last year.
  • be eligible by showing a decline in revenues by 15% in March, or 30% in April and May.
  • face strict penalties for any abuse (i.e. fined up to 225% of the amount received and sentenced to five years in prison) due to the "high trust" aspect of the program.

Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)

• Small business and charities with be able to access interest-free loans of up to $40,000, with up to 25% of the loan being forgivable if paid back by December 2022.
• Applications for the CEBA will be starting today.

Provincial

Local Organizations Ask for Provincial Income Security

• In an open letter to the Minister of Children, Community, and Social Services, a broad coalition of more than 130 organizations including the Community Advocacy & Legal Centre (CALC), the local Poverty Roundtable, food banks, health providers, faith groups, other legal clinics, low-income Ontarians, and community groups from across the province have called for two immediate changes to Ontario’s social assistance programs. These changes would help low-income Ontarians to make ends meet during this emergency.
  • First, the letter calls for social assistance rates to be immediately increased. Second, the letter calls for Ontario to not claw back federal benefits from social assistance recipients. Similar changes have already been made in BC, where CERB and EI payments are exempted and social assistance payments have been increased.

Increasing the Capacity of the Health Workforce

• Some 8,000 people have submitted their names through the new ministry portal and 1,000 have been matched with an employer.

Testing

• Premier Ford was frustrated with the "unacceptable" low level of testing and has called for an increase to 13,000 tests a day.
  • With the reagent availability, equipment and lab capacity, he saw no excuse as to why this cannot be achieved and would be following up daily to check on progress.
• Priority will be given to workers and residents in long-term care and seniors residences, health care workers, first responders and others in the community.

Construction of Essential Infrastructure and Workplace Health and Safety

• Hours for essential construction projects (e.g. new hospital builds, expansions and COVID-19 assessment centres) will be extended to 24 hours a day.
• The construction of temporary health facilities will be accelerated so that the province is ready for any surges.
• New measures are being put in place to protect essential workers, making it easier for employees to voice their concerns and increasing the government's capacity to respond.
• These measures range from increasing the number of workplace inspectors, deploying specialists to support employers and workers to resolve issues, closing down unsafe workplaces where warranted, and increasing the number of call lines to lodge complaints.
• Workplace health and safety concerns can be conveyed by calling 1-877-202-0008.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Efforts continue to secure PPE; the Premier is more confident that the needed supplies will be forthcoming through various international, national and provincial channels.

Local

• The United Way Hastings & Prince Edward has published on social media a list of local grocery stores and services offered such as seniors’ hours, pick-up and delivery options. Their website also contains information about local grocery options, for different communities within Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.

• Prince Edward Lennox and Addington Social Services (PELASS) has been authorized by the Province of Ontario to provide emergency child care for children of health care providers and essential workers. Eligible workers are determined by the Province of Ontario.
  • PELASS has partnered with local child care operator The Hub Child and Family Centre to offer emergency licensed child care in the community.
  • The service is provided at no cost to families, funded by the Province of Ontario, for children from birth to age 12. Services will operate from 6:30 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Friday. The need for extended hours will be explored based on demand.
  • The provision of emergency child care and eligibility may change as the situation evolves.
  • For more information and to apply, visit www.lennox-addington.on.ca/covid-19/emergency-child-care.
• Little Lambs Home Daycare Agency has partnered with the County of Hastings and the Ministry of Education to reopen for emergency child care. All potential clients are required to go through Hastings County to receive approval.
  • For more information, visit https://www.littlelambshdc.cm/covid.html.
• Prince Edward County reminded residents that while landfills and transfer sites remain open at this time, trips should be limited to essential needs only to limit traffic and practice physical distancing. Residents should sort their recycling before going to the sites to avoid creating unnecessary crowds at the bins. For curbside pick-up, residents can put out one untagged bag of garbage per week until May 1 at which time this process will be reassessed. The two-bag limit per week for curbside collection remains in place.

• Quinte Waste Solutions has cancelled the mobile household hazardous and electronic waste event scheduled for April 11 in Picton. More details are available on the QWS website.

• Administrators and staff from the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board have started handing out the first deployment of student equipment.

• Quinte West has created a dedicated web page describing their current by-law enforcement activities surrounding COVID-19 in partnership with OPP officers. An online reporting portal is also available on the page.

• Starting April 13, a Quinte West Community Hero will be featured weekly on their social media pages for going above and beyond during the COVID-19 crisis. Heroes will receive a Quinte West Good Deeds Box, featuring products gift certificates from local businesses.

• City of Belleville is encouraging residents to continue to take part in #BellevilleCares initiative. The city also reminds residents that garbage collection will continue as normal on Good Friday.

• The Addictions and Mental Health Services Hastings Prince Edward Pandemic Helpline will now be available 7 days per week, including holidays from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, starting this weekend. The phone number is 613-967-4737.

Public Health

• Effective 11:59 am on April 8, 2020, Dr. Piotr Oglaza has issued a class order under Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act. This order enables Hastings Prince Edward Public Health to enforce self-isolation requirements for all individuals who have been advised to do so. These efforts are being made to protect the local community from potential exposure to COVID-19. The order applies to anyone who currently resides, or is present, in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties who:
  • has been diagnsed with COVID-19,
  • has the signs and symptms of COVID-19,
  • has been tested fr COVID-19 and is awaiting the results of their test,
  • has a reasn to believe they have symptoms of COVID-19, or
  • is a clse contact of any of the above.
• Enforcement of the order will be shared between Public Health and municipalities. HPEPH enforcement will focus on enforcement issues relating to fixed premises and of people who have been given an order to isolate (e.g. Section 22). Police and municipal bylaw officers will take the lead in enforcing physical distancing in the community.

• HPEPH reminds residents to stay home this weekend and avoid family gatherings with those outside the home in order to curb the spread of COVID-19.

• The HPEPH COVID-19 information line remains open throughout the long weekend. The information line will be operating Friday, April 10 to Monday, April 13, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Effective Tuesday, April 14, the information line will operate 8:30 am to 6:30 pm on weekdays and 8:30 am to 4:30 pm on weekends.

• This municipal bulletin will not be issued over the long weekend and will resume on Tuesday, April 14.

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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