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Ontario students with the sniffles no longer need a COVID test. Some experts warn this might be a big mistake

Aug 24, 2021 , , , , by shlf

A significant overhaul of COVID in Ontario schools, which will allow kids who recover quickly from a runny nose, headache or upset stomach to return to class without a test, has stunned several infectious disease experts in Toronto, despite a similar move in B.C.

These experts say the province has not provided the evidence to justify loosening guidelines as cases surge.

Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious diseases physician at Michael Garron Hospital, who has been reaching out to families of students who test positive at her hospital since schools reopened, said the decision is not in line with what she is seeing on the ground.

In the past few weeks, McCready said she has seen several cases of COVID in students with no known contact to another COVID case, whose only symptom is a runny nose that resolves “quite quickly.” The new screening tool, she said, “wouldn’t have caught the cases.”

“It worries me that we’re making this step now, and we’re making it easier for potential cases of COVID to get into schools,” she said. “Maybe there’s data that I don’t have available, but certainly, from the cases I’ve (seen), this makes me nervous.”

Ontario’s decision to revise the COVID screening guidelines in schools and child-care centres follows the easing of return-to-school protocols in British Columbia, where nasal congestion was recently removed as a symptom forcing kids to stay away from school. The policy will no doubt be greeted with relief by many parents who have lost days of work — and much of their sanity — trying to get their sniffly kid tested.

In a press release Thursday, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the revision to the guidelines reflects “the best available medical advice.” Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario’s associate medical officer of health, said the new screening tool is the result of consultations with health officials in B.C, who recently revised the screening protocol, as well as pediatric infectious disease specialists.

But Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at University of Toronto, who said she was consulted by the Ontario government, does not support the recent revision, calling it “bad policy.”

She said runny noses are “a pretty typical presentation of COVID among kids and that the government appears to be “more concerned about having kids in schools than keeping schools open long-term.”

The move comes amid long lines at COVID assessment centres in Ontario and even longer turnaround times for results in Ontario, where the testing backlog surpassed 82,000 on Thursday.

Yaffe told the Star in an interview that here, as in B.C., “we were aware that a lot of kids were being sent home with a runny nose, and parents were going to the assessment centres, waiting in line, getting everyone tested and then waiting at home for the results … and it was just a runny nose.”

But Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious diseases specialist at U of T, warned against applying the B.C. context to Ontario, because the policy change has only been in effect there for a few weeks and caseloads are higher here.

“To use that rationale to say that it’s safe to do, that’s jumping to a very large conclusion,” said Morris, who is also calling on Ontario to provide more data to support the move. “It might be the right thing to do, but what is the scientific basis for this decision?”

When B.C.’s medical officer of health, Dr. Bonnie Henry, discussed changes to the school screening checklist late last month, there were 2,000 active cases in the province. On Thursday, Henry said there have been no outbreaks in B.C. schools since they reopened in September. The province’s average daily cases are now sloping downwards, with 1,284 cases currently active.

“We’ve done over 35,000 tests in people under the age of 19 and very few of them are positive,” she said in an online press conference. “And a runny nose by itself — which, (as) anybody who has children knows, is a very common symptom during the winter months — is not associated with COVID by itself very frequently.”

In Ontario, Yaffe said, “we were asked why even include a runny nose — a runny nose is so common,” she said. “There are so many reasons for a runny nose that are not COVID-19” such as allergies, coming inside from the cold outdoors or other viral infections.

But Ontario chose to keep it on its list of less serious symptoms — along with nausea/diarrhea and headache or fatigue — because about 17 per cent of COVID cases present with a runny nose, she said.

The province did not provide the Star with data on the number COVID tests that have been performed on children with runny noses or the positivity rate of these tests.

In a statement, a health ministry spokesperson said: “As this outbreak evolves, the province will continue to review the scientific evidence to understand the most appropriate guidance for the health system and the people of Ontario and make updates as needed.”

Yaffe said any child with just one of the less serious symptoms who also had COVID would experience worsening symptoms within 24 hours. “What we are trying to do is balance,” Yaffe added. “Obviously we want to minimize the transmission of COVID-19, but we also want to ensure that kids can go to school or child care if it’s safe.”

Yaffe said no test or doctor’s note should be required when they have one of the less serious symptoms, she said. However, students whose condition worsens, or those who have the “more significant” symptoms of a fever, cough, shortness of breath or loss of smell or taste, do need to isolate and seek medical help, she also said.

Families in B.C. were initially told to keep their children home if they showed any symptoms, but B.C. changed its guidelines mid-September, saying a runny nose, sore throat or headache shouldn’t stop kids from attending class.

Yaffe said Ontario has spoken to numerous pediatric experts here and in B.C., and made its changes to help balance public safety while recognizing children’s need to be at school.

Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said “we are reviewing the revised screening protocols, and continue to encourage everyone to be cautious and diligent in following public health advice.”

However, she added, “if we really want students to continue enjoying the benefits of the in-class experience, the bottom line is that the government must finally step up and implement all reasonable precautions to make our schools as safe as possible. This is becoming increasingly urgent as we see cases of COVID-19 surging in our communities.”

MPP Marit Stiles, the NDP’s education critic, said the changes are causing confusion.

“Parents who spent hours and hours in line this week with their little ones waiting for a test …have a right to be frustrated at the horrible lack of clarity on when kids need a test, and when they should return to school or daycare,” Stiles said.

With files from Jennifer Yang

Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

Rachel Mendleson is a Toronto-based investigative reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

Nicholas Keung is a Toronto-based reporter covering immigration for the Star. Follow him on Twitter:

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Sweet! No need to cancel Halloween, Dr. Theresa Tam says

Aug 20, 2021 , , , , by shlf

OTTAWA—Canada’s top doctor Dr. Theresa Tam says is scary but it’s not a reason to cancel Halloween.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa Tuesday after COVID-19 dampened many an indoor Thanksgiving weekend feast, Canada’s chief public health officer said public health leaders recognize Halloween is important to communities and children. They also believe it’s possible to strike the “right balance” between risk and fun — outdoors.

“I think trick-or-treating outside with the right distancing, prepackaging your treats so that people are not rummaging in a bowl of their bonbons, candies, is actually important,” said Tam. So is “having hand sanitizers for your kids, wearing a mask,” she said.

Tam said it’s important to listen to local public health directions, because virus activity differs from region to region.

Toronto, Ottawa and Peel region are Ontario’s hot zones, but Ontario’s medical health officer Dr. David Williams said recommendations for Halloween in those spots haven’t yet been finalized.

Tam hailed creative suggestions like using a hockey stick to hand out treats, or a pool noodle to show kids how far apart to stand.

In the Whitby area, woodworker Scott Bennett designed and to YouTube an illuminated candy slide to allow social distancing while handing out Halloween candy. He describes it as “similar to a Hot-wheels track and lined with LED lights.”

“It is possible to give candy and to receive candy safely,” said Tam’s deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo.

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Ontarians spending less on clothing, more on hobbies during pandemic

Aug 17, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Ontarians’ lifestyles have changed significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it shows in the way they spend their money.

In its recent report “” the Retail Council of Canada highlights how, while retail spending has rebounded from lows of the early pandemic, economic recovery has been uneven across different sectors.

Throughout the summer, Ontarians spent less on clothing, accessories and dining out, and more on home improvement, groceries and hobbies, said Karl Littler, spokesperson for the Retail Council of Canada.

“The current story as told by Canada’s July and August numbers suggests … there are some parts of Canadian retail that have not got back to the level they were at before,” Littler said. “Some have done relatively well in this context as people have refocussed their spending around the home environment.”

Here is how businesses fared this August compared to August 2019, according to new data by Statistics Canada on retail, restaurant and bar sales.

Though some of the data is national, Littler said, national sales data consistently aligns with Ontario’s numbers. 

“Ontario is 40 per cent of the economy and 40 per cent of retail sales, so anything you see here would be reflected in Ontario sales,” he said.

DOING BETTER

Building material, garden equipment and supplies: Sales at these stores were 17.1 per cent higher across Canada this August.

Sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores: Across Canada, stores sold 6.7 per cent more this August than last August.

“Music stores have done exceedingly well during this period,” Littler said. “Notwithstanding that many of them had to be closed for a period doing curbside (sales), they’re still doing incredibly well.”

Furniture stores: Canadians spent 8.9 per cent more on furniture this August.

Food and beverage stores: This August, supermarket sales were up 11.4 per cent, convenience store sales were up 8.4 per cent, specialty food store sales were up 6.3 per cent and beer, wine and liquor store sales were up 6.6 per cent.

Used car dealers: Used car dealers sold 10.3 per cent more this August than August 2019.

Auto parts: Canadians spent 6.1 per cent more on auto parts this August.

Electronics and appliance stores: Electronics and appliance stores sold 7.7 per cent more this August.

DOING WORSE

Clothing and clothing accessory stores: Clothing stores fared worst in this category, selling 13.6 per cent less nationally than in August 2019. Shoe sales dropped by 12.2 per cent, while jewelry, luggage and leather good stores sold 0.2 per cent less than last August.

Bars and restaurants: Food service sales, including at full-service restaurants, limited-service eating places, special food services and drinking places, were 26.6 per cent lower in Ontario this August than last year.

New car dealers: New car dealers did not fare as well as used car dealers this August, selling 0.8 per cent less than in 2019.

Movie theatres: Cineplex, one of Canada’s largest theatre chains,  after theatres were forced to temporarily close due to the pandemic. Kinepolis Group, which owns 44 Landmark Cinemas locations in Canada, in the second half of 2020.

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‘Overwhelmed with generosity’: Everett community rallies to help family displaced by fire at convenience store

Aug 9, 2021 , , , , by shlf

From offers of used clothing, gift cards and cash donations, Everett residents are doing everything they can to help a family that was displaced by a house fire.

The fire at the home attached to Ivan’s Convenience on Main Street broke out Nov. 12 around 4:30 p.m.

The fire department said the blaze was caused by an unattended pot of oil in the kitchen at the rear of the home.

“The fire was contained to the kitchen area but the rest of the house has heavy smoke damage,” District Chief Gary McNamara wrote on Facebook. “The store was not as bad, but all the items will need to be cleaned.”

A family of five lives at the home, including two adults, two young boys and a teenage girl, but everyone who was inside at the time escaped unharmed.

McNamara said the homeowner is insured and is working through the claim process.

The damage was estimated to be less than $200,000, according to fire chief John Krayetski.

Residents are working to set up a Go Fund Me page or bank account to support the family.

“He is overwhelmed with the generosity this little town has shown him and his family,” McNamara added.

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Standard & Poor’s maintains City of Barrie’s ‘AA’ credit rating

Jul 30, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The City of Barrie has maintained its ‘AA’ credit rating for another year and the outlook is stable, according to the latest report from Standard & Poor’s (S&P). This report is issued annually from S&P, a financial services company that offers services including credit ratings, data analysis, and equity research to private and public sectors worldwide.

“A better credit rating saves our taxpayers real dollars, as it reduces the interest costs on borrowing. In this way, good financial management helps us keep taxes down. The City has made necessary adjustments during COVID-19 to cut spending to compensate for reduced revenue, while still maintaining essential services to our residents,” says Mayor Jeff Lehman.

The report attributes Barrie’s ‘AA’ rating to the City’s cost-containment efforts, a diverse and healthy economy, growing workforce, and strong operating balance. Although there may be some budgetary stresses due to the ongoing pandemic, S&P predicts a stable outlook for the City over the next two years.

“Our strong financial management practices have maintained our rating,” says Craig Millar, Director of Finance. “The steps staff have taken to minimize economic impacts over the last six months have helped protect the City’s financial future.”

S&P Report Highlights:

• “Although COVID-19 will be a temporary shock to the City of Barrie, the city will proceed with its healthy growth rates and plans to diversify its economy once the effects of the pandemic subside.”

• “Financial management will continue to demonstrate prudence, allowing the city to generate healthy operating surpluses and keep its debt burden manageable, despite the pandemic-related operating pressures.”

To read the full report, visit

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Where is Canada in the fight against COVID-19? Use this dashboard for the latest numbers from each province

Jul 28, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The numbers below are compiled by the government of Canada and represent a snapshot of how is spreading across the country.

The data is updated every evening. Because of reporting times and methodolgy it may not match exactly with data from other sources and, since all counts have their limitations, it is likely that many pepople with COVID-19 are not reflected in the numbers. Testing may also be uneven between jurisdictions and vary across times within a jurisdiction. If one jurisdiction has tested more people, that place is likely to have a more accurate picture of spread.

The Star has several COVID-19 data dashboards that look at the numbers from a variety of angles. In each case, we’ve picked what we believe to be the most accurate and updated data source.

You can check our to see how Canada compares to other countries and check our to see what’s happening closer to home, including your health unit.

For suggestions or questions about Star data, please email: .

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‘Without them, we would not have a COVID-19 vaccine’: Meet the people who volunteered to take an experimental dose

Jul 26, 2021 , , , , by shlf

One early morning in mid-October, Jonathan and Patricia Liedy woke their three daughters before dawn, loaded them into the car they’d packed the night before and set out from the north Florida home they had barely left in months.

Destination? A medical facility three hours away in Georgia.

The couple had appointments that would give them membership in a small worldwide club that has played a critical role in paving the way for a vaccine. They volunteered to be injected with an experimental vaccine to make sure it was safe for the world.

“I mean, that really is our philosophy of life,” Patricia, 36, said, speaking via Zoom from their home in Tallahassee.

“Instead of sitting there, hoping that someone will do something, get up and be the person to do something. We can’t always do that, but this time we could.”

The scale of the coronavirus pandemic has spawned a massive global undertaking. Chinese scientists posted the genome — basically the map of its DNA — online in January, and just shy of a year later, doses of the first approved vaccine are being injected into seniors living in the United Kingdom. Observers have heralded the process as science done at blistering speed.

Jonathan, who works in IT, and Patricia, who takes care of their kids, are two of the over 43,000 people who participated in the final phase of testing for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and German startup BioNTech, which is expected to be approved for use in Canada .

It’s already got the green light in the U.K., and on Tuesday, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan of Coventry became the first person in the world to get the Pfizer vaccine outside of a trial. The retired jewelry shop attendant it was a “privilege.”

The dose that went into Keenan’s arm, and all the ones that will follow, were helped along by the thousands of people who volunteered to test it first.

“If you say there’s 30,000 people per trial, and there’s 20 trials now in play, that’s over half a million people around the world who came forward and volunteered for these vaccine trials,” Alan Bernstein, the CEO of CIFAR, a Canadian-based global research organization, and a member of Canada’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, said in October.

“I think we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for doing that. Because without those volunteers, we would not have a vaccine.”

The success of the vaccine has also now prompted questions about those same volunteers. To see if the vaccine actually works, some study participants are given a placebo, while others get the real deal.

The study is “blinded,” which means volunteers aren’t told which they’re getting so it doesn’t affect their behaviour. Even the syringe used for the injection is covered.

But while the studies are meant to continue for two years — to get as much information about long-term effects as possible — some are arguing it’s only fair to let those in the placebo group know early, so they can benefit from the protection of the vaccine they helped create.

Like most of the volunteers the Star has spoken to, the Liedys saw this as an opportunity to play a role, however small, in stopping the pandemic that has killed more than 1.5 million people around the world. Florida, where they live, has lost almost 20,000 people alone. One was Jonathan’s colleague.

“It was so hard not to be super-angry after that,” said Jonathan, 44. “We’re watching people say this is a hoax, or it doesn’t matter, or it’s just the flu, when I’ve already had to hire for his position and clean out his office so his wife didn’t have to do it.”

That’s when they started looking into trials, but both Moderna and Janssen wanted people who lived closer to their test sites, Patricia said. But Pfizer said if they were willing to drive for a six-hour round trip, they were in. They didn’t hesitate.

For Jenny Hamilton, 57, a former police officer who now does security on film sets, the pandemic made her think of the last time a virulent virus had swept the globe, and of her grandparents, who had lived through Spanish Flu in 1918.

“Back then, they didn’t even have the option of having vaccines,” she said. “Then, when they started developing vaccines, people in prisons and mental institutions and minorities and other vulnerable people would be subjected to experimentation, and wouldn’t have the choice to be able to say, ‘I want to take this or I don’t want to take it.’ ”

Now that she had the choice? Hamilton said yes. “A lot of other people I’ve heard from that are part of the trial feel the same way, that this is a historical event. And, you know, it’s an all-hands-on-deck type of emergency.”

She was also in the final phase of testing of Pfizer’s vaccine and got her shots at one of the three trial locations in Atlanta.

“It’s kind of funny. People worry that we might be rushing a product into people that has never been tested at all,” says Ian Haydon, 29, who works in communications at the University of Washington in Seattle. He signed up for a Moderna trial after someone posted about it on his office’s Slack messaging app.

“I think that ignores people like me, and the thousands of others who are real people,” he says. “These are obviously unusual times, and this is a very fast development timeline, but these trials really are happening.”

A clinical trial has three stages. In the first, researchers are still trying to sort out basic safety and protocol so they need a relatively small number of volunteers. Several vaccine makers also tried different dose strengths early on.

Phase 2 expands the trial to more people and starts looking at how effective the dose is. Phase 3 is when the trial is rolled out to the world, with thousands of volunteers enrolled to try and make sure the vaccine works on as many people as possible.

Haydon is relatively unusual in that he was part Moderna’s Stage 1 trial. At that point researchers had just 120 volunteers and were still trying to figure out how much vaccine was needed, so were trying five different doses.

According to Haydon, he was given the highest dose being tested, which, it turns out, may have been too high. He got some arm pain after his first dose, but it was his second that was “a bit more eventful,” as he puts it.

“I woke up with a pretty high fever. I was nauseous. I had a headache. I had basically all the stuff that we had been asked to look out for.” He contacted the trial organizers, who recommended that he go to urgent care, where he was met by someone from the study.

He went home, where slowly his symptoms started to fade. A few days later he says he was told his immune system had basically overreacted to a dose that was too strong. But as a result of that trial, Moderna was able to narrow down how much vaccine to use, and Haydon says he’s proud of the part he played.

“I had a pretty unpleasant evening,” he says. “But looking at it now, the fact that my illness, however brief, seemed to matter for the trial? That’s very comforting for me.”

“To know that it helped make the later phases of the trial even just a little bit safer for the other volunteers seems well worth it. I certainly have no regrets.”

(One of the later volunteers who may have benefited from that was Haydon’s own mother. She worried about her son participating in a trial, so she and Haydon had several long phone conversations about the risks and benefits. In the end, she volunteered for a later trial herself, Haydon says.)

The risk to personal health versus the benefit to the vaccine effort was something every volunteer had to weigh.

“I’m sort of a walking co-morbidity,” Jenny Hamilton says and laughs. With asthma and a thyroid autoimmune condition, she’s at higher risk for COVID-19, but she says the study organizers were open to people with some conditions.

Her past as a police officer made the risk easier to contemplate, she said: “Sometimes you think this is a routine call, and then all hell breaks loose after you get there.”

“I’m used to getting a call where I don’t know what’s going to happen when I get there.”

Hamilton suspects she got the real thing, as she had symptoms after both shots.

“You basically feel like you do the day or two before you get the flu, you know, where you’re exhausted and you don’t know why.”

When asked if they think if they got the real vaccine, the Liedys immediately look at each other and laugh. They’re both in a Facebook group for study volunteers and this is a very popular topic of discussion.

After getting their first shot, the Liedy’s took their daughters out for Greek food and took a short tourist drive into Alabama — after months of isolation the trip felt almost like an adventure, but they also wanted to stay close to the centre in case either had a bad reaction. Finally they headed home. Both had sore arms and were tired, “but that could have been chalked up to dragging five people six hours in the car,” Jonathan notes.

For the second, they were warned by others in the Facebook group that any side effects tended to be a bit worse so they drove straight home after.

Patricia had a very sore arm and had flu-like symptoms for a few hours, including an elevated temperature and body aches. They were gone in a few hours. Jonathan however, had the same reaction he had the first time. Both were tired, but weren’t sure if that was related or not.

In many ways, volunteering for a trial is signing up for never-ending introspection.

“The weirdest thing about being part of a blinded trial like this is that you’re always second-guessing,” Jonathan says. “Am I getting body aches? Am I going to get sick? Is it the virus or am I causing it myself because I think I got the vaccine?”

In fact, the question of whether or not volunteers got the real vaccine or not is becoming a matter of some importance now that the vaccines they helped develop are proving to work. Volunteers signed up to be followed for two years to study the long-term effects, but there is now a push to “unblind” the studies so that those in the placebo group can get the real vaccine.

The argument for keeping the studies blind is that it will allow researchers to continue collecting data on the long-term effects, important for public safety.

But an open letter from dozens of trial volunteers, including the Liedys, and posted to in November argues that keeping the study blinded isn’t fair to those who stepped up.

“Although maintaining a larger placebo group for a longer period of time would provide more data, in this case, it would do so at the cost of preventing people at high risk of contracting the virus, or high risk of having a severe outcome from the virus, from seeking a potentially life-saving vaccine.”

Regardless, the couple say they don’t regret participating. Doing so helped start the grieving process for Jonathan’s co-worker, Patricia says.

“It’s been healing to know I’m doing a small part to not just protect his parents, but it’s protecting other people’s parents, and our immunocompromised friend,” she says.

“He can’t do stuff like this. He’s been locked up in his apartment since March,” Jonathan adds, and Patricia nods.

“It’s been a relief to just be able to help. To just be part of the answer.”

Alex Boyd is a Calgary-based reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Today’s coronavirus news: COVID-19 cases, deaths climbing in Ontario long-term-care homes; Alberta premier in isolation after minister tests positive; Toronto reports 346 new cases in one day

Jul 21, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The latest news from Canada and around the world Wednesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

10:32 p.m. South Korea has 121 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, its first triple-digit daily jump in a week amid concerns about the country easing social distancing restrictions just last week to cope with a weak economy.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Thursday that South Korea’s caseload is now at 25,543 for the pandemic, including 453 deaths.

Hundreds of recent infections have been tied to hospitals in major cities such as Seoul and Busan. Officials are testing 130,000 workers at hospitals, nursing homes and senior facilities in the Seoul metropolitan area hoping to reduce outbreaks.

South Korea has enforced its lowest level of social distancing measures since Oct. 13, allowing high-risk businesses and karaoke bars to reopen and fans to return to professional sports.

9:30 p.m. Mexican health officials estimated Wednesday that the country has risen above one million coronavirus cases, though the figure includes both confirmed infections as well as suspected cases.

Officials put the country’s apparent deaths from COVID-19 at 102,293, again including cases in which patients were not tested for the virus.

The Health Department says its pandemic caseload tally has reached 1,005,938. That includes people who have displayed symptoms of COVID-19 but were not given tests or whose samples could not be processed. Test-confirmed cases total 867,559.

The agency attributes 102,293 deaths to the pandemic, adding in deceased patients who weren’t tested but had symptoms judged to be caused by COVID-19. Test-confirmed deaths stand at 87,415.

Mexico has an extremely low testing rate.

8:18 p.m.: The number of active cases of COVID-19 among residents of Ontario long-term-care homes is growing at an average rate of about eight per cent per day, prompting seniors advocates to call for measures to prevent a full-blown second wave of infections from sweeping through facilities.

There were 216 active resident infections in the province’s long-term-care homes as of Oct. 20, up from just under five on Sept. 1. That represents an average daily growth rate of 7.99 per cent between those dates. (Since the official provincial numbers for Sept. 5 indicate less than five infections, we have assumed five for ease of calculation.)

At the same time, the number of homes with active outbreaks currently sits at 86, up from 13 on Sept. 1, with a high of 87 homes reached on Oct. 19. Sixty residents have died of COVID-19 since the beginning of September.

“It shouldn’t be about the numbers. It’s the fact that this is happening again and we’re on the trajectory headed towards a déjà vu of what happened in the first wave,” said Vivian Stamatopoulos, an associate professor at Ontario Tech University and a family caregiver advocate.

“Not enough was learned and the kinds of policies and supports we needed didn’t happen. This is preventable.”

7:45 p.m.: is isolating at home after one of his cabinet ministers tested positive for COVID-19.

A spokesman for Kenney says the premier went into self-isolation after learning that Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard was infected.

Deputy press secretary Harrison Fleming says Allard had been isolating since the weekend because a close contact tested positive.

He says Allard received her positive test result this afternoon and Kenney immediately went into isolation as a precaution.

Alberta is reporting 406 new cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths.

7 p.m.: The number of COVID-19 infections in Toronto, the rate of infection and the number of people being hospitalized continues to climb, Toronto’s medical officer of health announced Wednesday, striking an unusually sombre note at the afternoon update from city hall.

Dr. Eileen de Villa reported 346 new cases in one day, with a total of 128 people in Toronto now hospitalized, 21 more than yesterday.

The test positivity rate is also increasing: Between Oct. 4 to Oct. 10, the positivity rate was 3.2 per cent. On Wednesday, de Villa reported it climbed to 4.4 per cent between Oct. 11 and Oct. 17.

“I am concerned that its upward climb is not over, especially when I look at COVID-19’s renewed eruption in other countries,” said de Villa.

She pointed to lockdowns in Europe, including a national six-week lockdown in Ireland expected to result in 150,000 job losses; a similar two-week lockdown in Wales; regional lockdowns in parts of Spain and Italy and a nighttime curfew for four weeks in Paris and nine other cities in France.

She pointed to daily cases in the U.S., which topped 70,000 last week for the first time since July.

“There is nothing to prevent COVID-19 from catching fire here except the choices we make,” said de Villa.

6:20 p.m.: who had their WestJet and Swoop flights cancelled by the airlines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic — the first airline to offer full refunds for all flights.

The company says the refunds will be in the original form of payment, rather than a credit for future flights as it had been previously offering.

The Calgary-based company says it will begin on Nov. 2 to contact eligible passengers, starting with those who flights were cancelled at the onset of pandemic last spring.

It asks passengers not to contact the company to avoid overloading its contact centre.

Refunds are expected to take six to nine months.

5:30 p.m.: Health Canada has issued a large recall of numerous wipes products sold in Halton region and across Canada due to a possible contamination that could cause infections.

The involves Cottonelle & Cottonelle GentlePlus Flushable Wipes products. The company reported that more than 2 million units of the affected products were sold in Canada.

“Some of the recalled products may have the presence of a common household microorganism, Pluralibacter gergoviae,” Health Canada said in a statement. “Pluralibacter gergoviae rarely causes serious infections in healthy individuals. Individuals with weakened immune systems, who suffer from a serious pre-existing condition, who have been treated surgically, or belong to another sensitive group of persons are at an increased risk of infection if they use the contaminated product.”

The affected products were sold from February 14, 2020 to October 7, 2020, Health Canada said.

As of October 7, the company has received no reports of incidents or serious injuries in Canada. The affected products were sold at many stores, including Costco.

4:30 p.m.: The Liberal government has survived a confidence vote of its own creation, after the New Democrats joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s party in rejecting a Conservative attempt to create a powerful new parliamentary committee to investigate alleged corruption.

Three Green and two independent MPs — former Liberals Jody Wilson-Raybould and Marwan Tabbara — also voted against the motion. The Conservatives and Bloc Québécois supported it.

It was defeated in the House of Commons, 180 to 146, preventing for now the possibility of a snap election during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic this fall.

Trudeau had earlier declared the government’s intention to make the Conservative motion a confidence vote, setting up the possibility that the minority Liberals would lose power and trigger a federal election.

2:38: Dr. Eileen de Villa says 128 people are now in hospital in Toronto with COVID-19, 21 more than Tuesday. There are 346 more cases in Toronto, she reports.

2:24 p.m.: There are two certainties at Queen’s Park: A provincial budget will be tabled within the next two weeks, and that spending blueprint will be awash in red ink thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Rod Phillips must introduce his fiscal plan before Sunday, Nov. 15.

Thanks to limitations of the legislative calendar, that means the budget can be unveiled as early as next Monday and as late as Thursday, Nov. 5. (The legislature is not sitting Nov. 9-12 due to the Remembrance Day constituency week.)

In the house on Wednesday, Phillips dropped some hints about the Progressive Conservatives’ forthcoming budget.

Under questioning from Liberal MPP Amanda Simard (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell), he indicated there would be continued support for small businesses ravaged by the pandemic.

1 p.m. As federal political parties weigh whether to vote Wednesday — on the one-year anniversary of the last one — a public opinion poll shows most Canadians wouldn’t mind if it triggered .

Abacus Data surveyed 1,000 Canadians Tuesday evening, on the eve of a crucial decision in Parliament over whether MPs should vote in favour of a Conservative proposal for a powerful committee to investigate alleged government corruption.

The poll showed 55 per cent of Canadians think MPs should create the committee even if it triggers a snap election, while 45 per cent said they should act to prevent an election.

But only a 31 per cent minority of Canadians are following it closely or had even heard of the upcoming confidence vote.

12:50 p.m. The number of new cases in public schools across the province has jumped by 144 from the previous day, to a total of 823 in the last two weeks.

, the province reported 66 more students were infected for a total of 455 in the last two weeks; since school began there have been overall total of 874.

The data shows there are 13 more staff members for a total of 113 in the last two weeks — and an overall total of 235.

The latest report also shows 65 more individuals who weren’t identified for a total of 255 in that category — and an overall total of 460.

There are 516 schools with a reported case, which the province notes is about 10.7 per cent of the 4,828 public schools in Ontario.

12:45 p.m. New Brunswick is reporting its fourth death attributed to COVID-19. Public Health said a person with underlying health conditions who was between 70 and 79 years old died today in the Campbellton region.

The province is also reporting six new cases of COVID-19, all in the Campbellton area. The cases involve a person under the age of 19 and five people between the ages of 30 and 69.

There are 92 active infections in the province, while five patients are hospitalized with the disease and one is in intensive care. Authorities say they will likely ease restrictions in the Moncton region on Friday, an area that had been under a heightened pandemic-alert level following recent COVID-19 outbreaks.

12:40 p.m. A judge has dismissed an application by homeless individuals and their advocates to allow encampments in Toronto parks during the pandemic.

The group, which includes 14 people living in encampments and two activist organizations, sought an interim order to allow the homeless individuals to stay in parks until a constitutional challenge of a city bylaw is heard.

The bylaw bans living or camping in parks after midnight.

Justice Paul Schabas says the group hasn’t met the standard of establishing harm to the public interest that would justify suspending the city’s ability to enforce its bylaw.

Schabas says suspending the bylaw would unjustifiably tie the city’s hands in dealing with encampments that raise serious health and safety concerns during the pandemic.

Hundreds of men and women have left shelters since the pandemic began and have been living in encampments that have sprouted up across the city.

12:34 p.m. The Manitoba government is increasing fines for people and businesses who ignore public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fine for individuals will jump to $1,296 from $486, and for businesses the fine will rise to $5,000 from $2,542.

The province has already levied fines against several businesses suspected of not following capacity limits, physical distancing or other rules.

Premier Brian Pallister says the province is also working to change regulations so that municipal bylaw officers can enforce the rules.

He says, as of last week, 134 fines had been issued.

COVID-19 case numbers have jumped sharply in the province since the summer, especially in the greater Winnipeg area, where tighter restrictions have been imposed.

12:30 p.m. A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared in a unit at Scarborough Health Network’s General site.

In a memo obtained by toronto.com, the health network’s infection prevention and control department, alongside Toronto Public Health, is reporting six patients on CP4 Inpatient Medicine have tested positive for the virus. No staff have been reported as sick. The hospital is located at 3050 Lawrence Ave. E. at McCowan Road.

The unit has now been closed to admissions and visitors, according to the memo. Infection prevention and control measures, such as outbreak meetings with the unit, enhanced cleaning and ongoing monitoring and screening of patients and staff, have been put in place.

“We continue to monitor the situation closely,” a spokesperson for Scarborough Health Network said in part to toronto.com.

Scarborough Health Network is the latest Toronto health institution to report a COVID-19 outbreak during the second wave.

St. Michael’s Hospital declared a COVID-19 outbreak in their emergency department on Tuesday. St. Joseph’s Health Care Centre in the High Park area is also dealing with outbreaks in several units, and so is Toronto Western Hospital.

11:42 a.m. The European Union decided to remove Canada, Tunisia and Georgia from its list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc amid the coronavirus pandemic, an EU official familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The EU also opted to reopen its borders to travellers from Singapore as a result of improved virus trends there, the official said on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations on Wednesday in Brussels were confidential. The U.S. will remain blacklisted along with most other countries.

The changes are the first in more than two months to the EU’s recommended travel “white list,” shrinking it from 11 foreign nations at present to nine. The other eight are Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand and Uruguay.

10:26 a.m. Romania hit an all-time high Wednesday with 4,848 positive coronavirus cases as authorities carried out a record number of tests.

Romania reported 37,025 coronavirus tests, the highest so far. It added 69 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The rate of infections over the past 14 days passed the threshold of three people per 1,000 in 255 localities nationwide, all of which entered the “red scenario,” according to data from Romania’s Emergency Services Department.

In the red scenario, masks are mandatory in all public venues and restaurants, cafes, theatres and cinemas are closed. Schools are shut down and switch to online learning.

Romania has reported 191,102 coronavirus cases and 6,065 confirmed deaths.

10:14 a.m. (will be updated) Ontario is reporting 790 cases of COVID-19. Locally, there are 321 new cases in Toronto, 157 in Peel, 76 in York Region and 57 in Ottawa. More than 32,600 tests were completed. York entered modified Stage 2 restrictions on Monday because of a rapid growth in cases.

10:05 a.m. Authorities in Belgium fear another deadly wave of coronavirus cases could soon hit care homes as the country confronts the risk of seeing its hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, leading them to restrict nursing home visits.

The country of 11.5 million inhabitants recorded half of its COVID-19-related deaths in such homes during the spring wave of the pandemic. Amid a new surge in confirmed cases, new infections have been growing at an alarming rate in eldercare facilities.

In the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, coronavirus infections in care homes have risen by 51% and the number of deaths has doubled in the past week, according to local media quoting figures by the Flemish Agency for Care and Health. And the number of deaths has doubled over the past week.

Care home employees worked during the pandemic’s earlier peak with a shortage of tests, masks and protective equipment. To avoid a repeat of the situation, nursing home visits will now be limited until the curve of the current outbreak in Belgium flattens.

10 a.m. Netflix’s subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer months after surging in the spring fuelled by pandemic lockdowns that corralled millions of people in their homes.

The summer slump came as more people sought distraction from the pandemic outdoors and major U.S. professional sports resumed play, offering other entertainment alternatives to the world’s most popular video streaming service.

The drop-off disclosed Tuesday in Netflix’s latest earnings report was more dramatic than management had warned it might be.

9:50 a.m. Formula One driver Lance Stroll said he intends to race at the Portuguese Grand Prix this week after finishing a period of self-isolation following a positive test for the coronavirus.

Stroll, who drives for Racing Point, pulled out of the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring a day before the Oct. 11 race because he felt unwell and said Wednesday he later tested positive for COVID-19.

In a post on Instagram, Stroll said he spent 10 days at home in self-isolation with mild symptoms and returned a negative test on Monday.

“I feel in great shape,” the Canadian driver wrote, “and I can’t wait to be back with the team and to race in Portugal.”

9:45 a.m. The curbside patios and bicycle-lane bump-outs along Danforth Ave. that drew widespread acclaim this summer are about to be packed up.

The city’s Planning and Housing Committee voted Tuesday to extend patio season in Toronto until May 2021, with the exception of patios that were set up in curb lanes.

Those must be closed in the next few weeks, to allow winter road clearance to swing into action as soon as the snow begins to fly.

“As much as we would love to leave the patios in the curb lanes, all of those patios will come out,” said Mayor John Tory, at a press conference Tuesday morning. “We have to plow the roads when it starts to snow.”

9:35 a.m. As the COVID-19 pandemic’s second wave continues to build, Ontario’s labs reported on Tuesday they had tested at less than half their full capacity to process patient samples — a shortfall that has experts questioning whether the province is still able to accurately measure the virus’s spread.

According to the province’s data, Ontario’s labs have the capacity to analyze more than 45,000 COVID-19 tests daily, just shy of the stated goal of around 50,000 daily by mid-October.

But since a move earlier this month to , the labs’ actual testing output has fallen significantly for the first time since late May. As of Tuesday, the seven-day average for lab output is about 36,000 tests daily, down from a peak of more than 43,000 as of Oct. 9; the 24,049 tests reported processed Monday were the fewest since early September.

9:30 a.m. Families and lawyers of seniors who died of COVID-19 in long-term care are outraged at proposed Ontario legislation that would make it harder to sue nursing homes for damages.

“It’s another kick-them-when-they’re down moment,” said , who filed a $1.6-million lawsuit after her father, Paul, passed away during a COVID-19 outbreak at Orchard Villa nursing home in Pickering last April.

“I’m not backing down,” Parkes said. “We are all riled up, all of us.”

Civil suits that don’t meet the threshold of gross negligence and intentional misconduct will likely be dismissed by the courts without costs, according to by Attorney General Doug Downey.

9:26 a.m. cases have been linked to a wedding in Calgary earlier this month, as Alberta’s top doctor warned the province is in the “danger zone.”

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical health officer, said 63 people attended the celebration, which was partly indoors.

“I think it’s really important to make sure that we’re not singling this particular event out as an outlier, because it’s simply an example of a kind of activity that we know causes spread if an infectious person shows up,” she said during Tuesday’s COVID-19 media briefing.

She said a common thread between the wedding outbreak and other recent ones is that one or two protective measures — whether that be hand sanitizer, masks or physical distancing — likely slipped.

“The people that were involved did nothing intentionally wrong,” said Hinshaw. “They were doing their best to follow guidance and it just reinforces that everyone that attends one of these events needs to think about all those layers of protection.”

9:11 a.m. Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways said Wednesday it would cut 8,500 jobs and shut a regional airline as it grapples with the plunge in air travel due to the pandemic.

About 5,300 employees based in Hong Kong and another 600 elsewhere will likely lose their jobs, and 2,600 unfilled positions will be cut. The cuts are about 24 per cent of the company’s workforce, Cathay Pacific said in a statement.

“The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the group to survive,” Cathay Pacific CEO Augustus Tang said in a statement.

“We have to do this to protect as many jobs as possible, and meet our responsibilities to the Hong Kong aviation hub and our customers,” Tang said.

The company said it will also shut down Cathay Dragon, its regional airline unit, with operations ceasing from Wednesday.

9 a.m. Statistics Canada says retail sales rose 0.4 per cent to $53.2 billion in August.

It was the fourth consecutive monthly increase for retail sales since a record drop in April, when pandemic-related restrictions shuttered most non-essential businesses.

Economists on average had expected an increase of 1.1 per cent, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

Sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers rose 4.5 per cent, while sales at food and beverage stores climbed 0.8 per cent.

Retail sales in volume terms were up 0.5 per cent in August.

The results came as Statistics Canada says an preliminary estimate for September suggests retail sales were relatively unchanged for the month, but added that the figure will be revised.

8:40 a.m. A dispute over the scope and composition of a House of Commons committee will come to a head Wednesday in a vote that could trigger a federal election in the midst of the second deadly wave of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared that the vote on a Conservative motion to create a special anti-corruption committee will be test of confidence in his minority Liberal government.

The Conservatives are willing to drop “anticorruption” from the name of their proposed committee but the intent remains the same: to create a disproportionately opposition-dominated committee to investigate the WE Charity affair and other issues the official Opposition maintains reek of the government funnelling pandemic-related funding to Liberal friends.

8:37 a.m. Statistics Canada say its consumer price index in September was up 0.5 per cent compared with a year ago. The reading compared with an year-over-year increase of 0.1 per cent in August.

Economists on average had expected a year-over-year increase of 0.4 per cent, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

8:32 a.m. A crowd of 11,388 attended Tuesday night’s World Series opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays, spread in groups of up to four, mostly in alternate rows and none directly behind each other among the forest green seats.

That was the smallest crowd for the Series since 10,535 attended Game 6 in 1909 between the Tigers and Pittsburgh at Detroit’s Bennett Park, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Major League Baseball planned to make about 28 per cent available of the 40,518 capacity at the retractable-roof stadium of the Texas Rangers. The new $1.2 billion (U.S.) venue opened this year and replaced Globe Life Park, the team’s open-air home from 1994 through 2019.

8:30 a.m. The U.K. government’s borrowing rose to the highest level on record in the first half of the financial year as tax revenue fell and authorities spent billions of pounds to prop up an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that the government borrowed a net 36.1 billion pounds ($47.1 billion U.S.) in September, pushing the total for the first six months of the year to 208.5 billion pounds. That’s the highest figure since records began in 1993.

Taxe revenue dropped 11.6 per cent from a year earlier in the six months through September. At the same time, support for individuals and businesses to get through the pandemic contributed to a 34 per cent increase in day-to-day spending.

Public sector net debt now stands at 103.5 per cent of the U.K.’s annual economic output, the highest level since 1960, the ONS said.

7:30 a.m. Pakistan’s military-backed National Command and Operation Center has issued a warning that another lockdown could be imposed to contain COVID-19 deaths if people don’t stop violating social distancing rules.

The announcement on Wednesday came after Pakistan reported 660 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours and 19 single-day deaths.

The daily death toll was one of Pakistan’s highest in more than two months. Deaths from COVID-19 have steadily increased since the government lifted its months-long lockdown in August.

Pakistan has reported 324,744 confirmed cases of the virus and 6,692 virus-related deaths since February.

7:22 a.m. Poland has reported a new record for daily coronavirus cases after conducting a record number of virus tests.

The country on Wednesday reported 10,040 new confirmed cases, 13 COVID-19 deaths and 60,000 tests performed in 24 hours.

Authorities in large cities are taking steps to turn conference halls into temporary COVID-19 hospitals, and the city of Krakow is planning to reopen a disused hospital to treat coronavirus patients.

Polish lawmakers are debating legislation that would give more funds to medics and temporarily exempt them from legal responsibility for mistakes that take place while treating people for COVID-19.

The country of some 38 million has almost 203,000 total cases, including about 3,900 deaths.

6 a.m.: St. Michael’s Hospital declared a COVID-19 outbreak in their emergency department on Oct. 20.

A statement released on the hospital’s website reported five active cases amongst staff related to the outbreak with no reports in patient cases.

According to the statement, “outbreak status” refers to “two COVID-19 cases within a 14-day period, where both cases could reasonably have been acquired in hospital.”

The hospital determined that the risk of patient exposure is low, and that they will be reaching out to any patient who had direct contact with the staff who tested positive.

5:45 a.m.: Eighteen fishing crewmen who last week flew to New Zealand from Moscow have tested positive for the coronavirus, underscoring the difficulty New Zealand faces in trying to import needed workers while remaining virtually virus free.

A total of 235 crew from Russia and Ukraine were on the flight chartered by three fishing companies. Before leaving Moscow, they were supposed to have self-isolated for two weeks and tested negative for the virus. All remain in quarantine at a Christchurch hotel.

5:42 a.m.: Australian authorities say they’re treating a COVID-19 case in the city of Melbourne as a rare reinfection. The only coronavirus case reported in the former hot spot of Victoria state on Tuesday had also tested positive in July.

Victoria Premier Dan Andrews said Wednesday an expert panel’s decision to classify the case as a reinfection reflected “an abundance of caution” rather than conclusive evidence. Melbourne has been in lockdown since early July, but restrictions in Australia’s second-largest city are easing this week as daily infection tallies remain low.

Victoria reported three new cases on Wednesday. The state’s second wave peaked at 725 new infections in a day in early August.

5:42 a.m.: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says laxity could lead to a new surge in infections, as India reported 54,044 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally past 7.6 million.

The Health Ministry on Wednesday also reported 717 additional deaths for a total of 115,914. Deaths and new cases per day have been declining in India since last month, but Modi is urging people to continue wearing masks and observing social distancing until a vaccine is available.

Health officials have warned about the potential for the virus to spread during the ongoing religious festival season that includes huge gatherings in temples and shopping districts.

5:42 a.m.: The Philippines on Wednesday lifted a ban on non-essential foreign trips by Filipinos, but the immigration bureau said the move did not immediately spark large numbers of departures for tourism and leisure.

The government has gradually eased travel restrictions to bolster the economy, which slipped into recession in the second quarter following months of lockdown and quarantine to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

5:40 a.m.: The U.K. government’s borrowing rose to the highest level on record in the first half of the financial year as tax revenue fell and authorities spent billions of pounds to prop up an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that the government borrowed a net 36.1 billion pounds ($47.1 billion) in September, pushing the total for the first six months of the year to 208.5 billion pounds. That’s the highest figure since records began in 1993.

Tax revenue dropped 11.6 per cent from a year earlier in the six months through September. At the same time, support for individuals and businesses to get through the pandemic contributed to a 34 per cent increase in day-to-day spending.

5:40 a.m.: A day after donning a face mask for the first time during a liturgical service, Pope Francis was back to his maskless old ways Wednesday despite surging coronavirus infections across Europe.

Francis shunned a face mask again during his Wednesday general audience in the Vatican auditorium, and didn’t wear one when he greeted a half-dozen maskless bishops at the end. He shook hands and leaned in to chat privately with each one.

5:30 a.m.: A new satellite testing site that was intended to increase access for those who need it most is deepening frustrations in Toronto’s hard-hit northwest corner, amid a “testing mess” that has left more than 125 patients waiting — in some cases for over two weeks — for results.

York South-Weston MPP Faisal Hassan, who fought for months to bring the assessment centre to Humber River Hospital’s Church Street site, said the testing delays are a “disaster” in a community with disproportionately high COVID rates, where many residents are front-line workers unable to work from home.

“This is a complete failure of the government’s leadership here in our community,” Hassan said. “They have been far too slow to address the COVID crisis in our community. Once again, we are being neglected. We are putting more lives at risk.”

4 a.m. The B.C. Liberals and NDP are squabbling over how the COVID-19 pandemic might affect voter turnout in Saturday’s election.

Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson defended a news release from his party on Tuesday that questioned NDP Leader John Horgan’s decision to call the election a year early, arguing it “is suppressing voter turnout and putting those that do vote at risk.”

Horgan said Wilkinson is off base, adding that almost 500,000 people have voted in advance polls and more than 700,000 mail-in ballots have been requested.

He said those numbers show the level of interest in the campaign.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau campaigned Tuesday on her party’s pandemic economic recovery plan.

But she also rejected suggestions that the best way to unite progressive voters is to back the NDP, saying people should cast their ballots out of inspiration or hope.

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Fifteen per cent of Canadians are skeptical or undecided about COVID-19 risks, new survey finds

Jul 20, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The majority of Canadians are aware of the public health risk of COVID-19, but 15 per cent say they don’t believe the virus poses a big health risk to the population or are undecided,

The findings have raised questions among public health experts about how to address those who don’t believe in the seriousness of a virus that has killed more than 10,000 Canadians, and whether their skepticism poses a risk as cases rise at an unprecedented rate.

In a survey of 3,000 workers across Canada conducted Sept. 28 to Oct. 19, focused on COVID and its mental health impacts, 86 per cent of respondents agreed the virus is a serious public health risk. Six per cent said they do not, and eight per cent said they were undecided.

Those who believe COVID-19 is not a serious public health risk also reported lower rates of poor mental health than those who do believe the virus is a risk. The mental health of skeptics is 6.9 per cent lower than pre-pandemic rates, whereas the average of mental health decline among Canadians is around 11 per cent, Morneau Shepell says, citing its Mental Health Index.

This indicates that believing COVID-19 does not pose a serious risk “contributes to less mental health strain,” Morneau Shepell said of its findings in a report, released Thursday.

Paula Allen, senior vice-president of research, analytics and innovation at Morneau Shepell, said finding a small percentage of the population that didn’t believe in the risk of COVID-19 was not surprising.

“I’d question the data if that number was zero,” Allen said.

But the data does indicate what some know to be true: not everybody agrees that COVID-19 is a danger.

Dr. Colin Furness, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said the percentage of people who don’t believe in the risk of the virus or are undecided is likely to be higher at 20 per cent, given that those who are unconvinced about the severity of COVID-19 likely won’t answer surveys about its impact.

Furness said it’s difficult to decipher why some people are apathetic about COVID-19. Part of it, he said, could be denial, though it’s hard to measure people’s perception of their own reality through self-reporting surveys.

“Denial is an adaptive response,” Furness said. “If you want your cortisol levels to go down, if you want your blood pressure to go down, if you want to be able to sleep, there’s nothing like denying reality that lets you do that.”

For Allen, the findings point to some people’s perception that the virus isn’t something to worry about. This could govern how they navigate their everyday lives, and it poses a concern about how their behaviour will affect others, she added.

“If your perception is that there really isn’t any kind of risk to your health or the wellbeing of others, your perception is also likely to be that this is going to blow over quickly as well,” Allen said, adding that their behaviour to mitigate the risk of infection won’t change, likely to their detriment “and perhaps the detriment of others.”

At the time the survey was conducted and shortly afterwards, COVID-19 cases reached unprecedented highs in Toronto and Ontario. On Wednesday, Ontario In Toronto, daily case numbers have exceeded the 500 mark, prompting the city to enter the

For the majority of Canadian workers who do take COVID-19 seriously, their mental health has been hurt by the recent spike in cases, the Morneau Shepell survey revealed. Anxiety, depression, work productivity and optimism levels have all worsened since Morneau Shepell’s last mental health survey in September.

Canadian’s overall mental health has declined 11.4 per cent from pre-pandemic rates, inching closer to mental health rates in April and May when the impact of the pandemic was first felt. Allen said this number is even more worrisome in October due to the prolonged pandemic-induced stress people have been feeling for months.

While 90 per cent of those surveyed said they are handling the health and safety risk of the pandemic well, 35 per cent didn’t have that same confidence in their neighbours, and that percentage of people reported lower mental health scores overall.

But Furness offers some perspective: the small percentage of people that don’t believe in the risk of COVID-19 are likely not the main drivers of the uptick in infection; rather, he believes it is the behaviour of the majority who are confused about mixed-messaging from public health officials.

Bars and restaurants have remained open in many areas, allowing people to gather and socialize in small, confined spaces. Yet people were told to simultaneously limit personal gatherings, likely causing risky behaviour in other circumstances, Furness said.

“We’re saying ‘Do this, it’s fine, just please don’t do the same thing in your living rooms for reasons we can’t explain,’” Furness said. “And that last piece, people aren’t able to hear.”

It’s also unlikely that the opinion of COVID-19 non-believers will change, Furness said. The solution then lies in sidestepping the problem by implementing mandatory mask-wearing and other simple, effective measures.

For those who are worried, both Furness and Allen encouraged people to focus on what is within their own control: following safety measures, staying informed, preparing for the unpredictability of the virus and reaching out for help when it’s needed. Allen also pointed to AbilitiCBT,

“That’s the way you deal with fear,” Furness said. “Try to convert it into vigilance.”

Nadine Yousif is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering mental health. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Follow her on Twitter:

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Bruce Arthur: Positive COVID tests at Thorncliffe Park school might tell us something. The Ontario government’s reaction might tell us more

Jul 19, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Think of what you got away with when you were a kid, or what other kids at your school got away with. It could be elementary; it could be high school. When we grow up, some things happen that remain a secret.

Now think of schools today, and what is happening that we don’t know. Recent asymptomatic testing at Thorncliffe Park Public School of those subjects tested positive. There is more testing coming, in more hot spots. The principal wrote to parents and reassured them that the test positivity in the neighbourhood is 16 per cent. (As of Nov. 16. Toronto Public Health had Thorncliffe at 11.8 per cent.) This was repeated by the minister of education.

“I think it should be noted that the principal within the school had communicated that the positivity rate compared from the community to the school is quite vast, right?” said Minister Stephen Lecce. “So there’s something right happening in the context of the layers of prevention, and the fact that our staff, our students and parents are adhering to the public health advice. I accept that we still have work to do in the context of countering in our community.

“And it has to be said; I mean this morning, including the data points from Thorncliffe, 99.9 per cent of Ontario students are COVID-free. And that continues, I think to underscore the importance of following public health advice. And it really I think demonstrates the importance of keeping schools open, which is our plan for 2021.”

Some of that is clearly nonsense. Neighbourhood positivity is comprised of people with symptoms, or who have reasonable reason to think they’ve been exposed. This was a voluntary sample of asymptomatic people. You wouldn’t expect them to match up.

“That piece of data should not be thrown out there to make people feel better,” says Dr. Ashleigh Tuite, an epidemiologist and modeller at the University of Toronto who sits on the province’s volunteer science table. “It’s not at all comparable, and it’s highly misleading to say that it is.” She points out a comparable number would be a voluntary sample of asymptomatic people in the community.

Further, Lecce’s favourite talking point — saying 99.9 per cent of students in Ontario are COVID-free — was a vacant claim before they ran those 433 voluntary tests at Thorncliffe and found 19 extra cases; it is nonsense after.

We just don’t know. Children are at a higher rate than adults. A recent Nature Human Behaviour paper, released two weeks ago, examined 79 different jurisdictions and weighed of almost every intervention on how the virus was transmitted, and found closing schools was second only to cancelling small gatherings in terms of its impact.

And whether or not it was because the testing system all but blew up in late September, Ontario has not introduced surveillance testing, or even sentinel testing, that would tell us what was happening in schools. Contact rates have climbed, the virus has spread, and this province still has no idea where it’s coming from about half the time.

“The fact that you can go in and find all these cases, and then say we don’t think there’s a lot of transmission happening in schools, I don’t think you can say that with a straight face,” says Tuite. “You need to do more. You need to do more follow-ups in that particular school, and more broadly.

“But anyone who tells you either side of that question — anybody who tells you that no transmission is happening or tells you that schools are hotbeds of transmission — is not necessarily basing that on data.”

Tuite says the next step should be what the city of Ottawa does: retest the kids who were exposed to the asymptomatic carriers in five days, because that would give you a sense of whether it is spreading despite safety measures in schools. And while Toronto medical officer of health Dr. Eileen de Villa said it seemed the Thorncliffe cases could be traced back to families, Tuite points out that in asymptomatic cases you can’t peg infection date to symptoms. And since adults are more likely to get symptoms than children, you can’t discern the direction of infection without using serology testing.

“I think we need to do more testing in schools, to have a better idea of what’s actually happening,” says Dr. Janine McCready, an infectious diseases doctor at Michael Garron Hospital in East York, which has been a leader in reaching out to and protecting its community. “If you have one kid occasionally showing up with symptoms, versus if you have a school and you’ve got 10 kids showing up before they’re symptomatic, or as they have mild symptoms, or multiple introductions, then one of those is going to set on fire. Same as in hospitals.”

Even this exposure means 200 kids have been sent home to isolate for 10 to 14 days, and that’s with class sizes capped at 15 for junior and senior kindergarten, and 20 for grades 1-9, because Thorncliffe is a high-risk school. And while Toronto and Peel have gotten federal money for isolation hotels, the province has not funded isolation facilities for people who cannot isolate at home. There are a lot of families in apartments in Thorncliffe Park.

We could be doing better. There is , and hopefully more after that. What if we find out kids are spreading the virus more than believed? Could smaller class sizes be back in the news? Could there be more pressure on the province’s baffling lack of support for isolation facilities? In Atlantic Canada, schools close because of a handful of cases, because a handful of cases there is treated as an emergency. What else would be on the table, if Ontario finds out something it doesn’t want to hear?

Look, schools should be the last thing to close. But it sure feels like this province hasn’t wanted to know what’s happening in there. Maybe we didn’t want to know what we might find out.

Bruce Arthur is a Toronto-based columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: