At least one group of hospitals has called a “Code Orange” this week as health care workers battle a tsunami of Covid-19 admissions. That’s a protocol usually reserved for mass casualty incidents, when there are too many victims to care for. It’s a sign of just how brutal the January Omicron wave may be. Schools…
Category: Community News
How do we treat the unvaccinated? CMA opens dialogue as health systems overwhelmed
“We have this small minority — about five to 10 per cent of the population — that are leading us to where we are right now, and I think we need to get serious about what we’re going to do about that,” said Canadian Medical Association President Dr. Katherine Smart. The head of the Canadian…
Expert Q&A on anti-Asian racism during the pandemic
Since the start of the global lockdown, hate crimes targeted at Asian Canadians have increased hundreds of times over what they were before the pandemic began. New research led by University of Victoria psychologist Nigel Mantou Lou shows alarming rates of discriminatory experiences faced by Chinese Canadians and other Asian Canadians. For instance, the new paper…
Canadians are ‘angry’ with the unvaccinated: Trudeau
At this point in the pandemic, with widespread new restrictions and postponed surgeries for tens of thousands, Canadians are “angry” with those in this country who still have not rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday. “People are seeing cancer treatments and elective surgeries put off because…
Community Event for Frontline and Settlement Workers-Mental Health Support For Newcomer Youth and Children
Centre for Immigrant and Community Services (CICS) and three other community partners (Culture Link, Catholic Crosscultural Services & The Neighbourhood Organization) that are committed to providing newcomer mental health program would like to invite you and all of our community partners to join this event: Event: MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT FOR NEWCOMER YOUTH AND CHILDREN Date:…
Why are we still scrambling for boosters? When will the crunch end? Here’s the situation in Ontario right now
A “perfect storm” of factors has led to some difficulty to secure doses, but a top pharmacist expects that will soon pass. The challenge of ramping up Ontario’s third dose campaign has become even harder with vaccinators in public health settings needing time off because they have contracted COVID-19 or are experiencing burnout. A “perfect storm” of…
Omicron and living with COVID: Why the new variant might change the timeline
The Omicron variant is causing the virus to spread fast, and experts say that could speed up the timeline for COVID-19 to shift from a major health crisis to something we live with on a regular basis. The concept is known as “endemicity,” and it refers to a time when a circulating virus no longer has the steep waves…
Rise in babies admitted to hospital with COVID-19 triggers calls for pregnant Ontarians to get vaccinated
According to Public Health Ontario, 38 children under five have been hospitalized with COVID over the past few weeks. There has been one recent death in a child under five. Ontario hospitals are seeing a rise in the number of kids, including babies, hospitalized with COVID-19, leading four major hospitals to issue a joint plea for…
Ontario locks down, again
A tsunami of new cases: Doug Ford imposed new restrictions Monday to come to grips with a wave of omicron infections, delaying the return of students to schools by two weeks, the Globe reports. Premier Doug Ford, in a press conference Monday, said that 1 per cent of people infected with the Omicron variant will need hospital care. New daily…
Kids growing up in the pandemic have a different view of the world
Brianna Bell is a writer based in Guelph, Ont. I recently enrolled my two eldest daughters in swimming lessons, after a nearly two-year pandemic-related hiatus. Their lessons are held in a state-of-the art recreation centre in Guelph, Ont. After school one day, I brought my youngest daughter, who is 4, to watch her sisters from…