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Month: November 2021

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School board confirms COVID-19 case at Worsley Elementary in Wasaga Beach

Nov 29, 2021 , , , , by shlf

For the second time in as many days, a COVID-19 case has been confirmed at a school in South Georgian Bay.

The Simcoe County District School board confirmed a case at Worsley Elementary School in Wasaga Beach.

The board sent home letters to parents but would not confirm if it was a teacher or student who tested positive.

A classroom is closed at the school.

This follows a confirmed case at Admiral Collingwood Elementary School on Monday, which also resulted in a classroom being closed.

Corrine Lalonde has two children at the school and said the necessary steps are being taken.

“I think the school and public health are doing what needs to be done and as long as kids and teachers are following the guidelines at the school, the risk is very low,” she said. “Each parent can make a decision as to what is right for their family and child.”

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Ten Canada Post staff working in Barrie have tested positive for COVID-19 this month

Nov 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Through rain, sleet or snow. And even COVID-19, apparently.

Canada Post has confirmed to Simcoe.com that 10 employees working out of its Morrow Road distribution centre in Barrie have tested positive for the virus since Dec. 1.

“Throughout the COVID-19 response, Canada Post has worked with and followed the guidance of public health officials across the country,” spokesperson Valérie Chartrand said. “Our goal since March has been to protect the safety of our people and the people we serve as we maintain an essential service. Our employees follow physical distancing protocols, wear mandatory face coverings and follow other safety measures. We understand, however, that this is a concerning time for employees, especially when we communicate that a work colleague has tested positive.”

In each case, the postal service says, it has followed the direction and advice of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. It has also supported the health unit’s contact-tracing efforts and ensured appropriate sanitization is being conducted within the facility.

“Given our safety and sanitization protocols in place, they have deemed it to be low risk of transmission in the workplace,” Chartrand said. “Health officials have been in communication with us to understand what we are doing in our facility, (and) reviewed our safety and sanitization protocols. We are following any further direction they may have.”

Mail and parcel processing continues to operate “safely” during one of the busiest times of the year, she said.

“Contingency plans are in place to keep pace as best as possible,” Chartrand said.

Health unit medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner declined to comment on the matter during a teleconference with reporters Dec. 8.

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Shelters need wider testing for broad list of symptoms, study says

Nov 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

In the throes of COVID-19’s first wave in Toronto in April, Dr. Meb Rashid remembers a single phone call delivering the results of a 60-person testing sweep at a refugee shelter.

Before the tests were done, six residents were flagged by a symptom screen, so some positive test results wouldn’t have been a shock. But when Rashid heard that 25 of the 60 were infected — a whopping 41.6 per cent positivity rate — he was floored.

“It was time to pause,” he said, “and then to scramble.”

Once the outbreak was over, Rashid and a group of medical workers examined what happened. In their new study — shared exclusively with the Star — they revealed that a dozen residents who weren’t caught by the initial symptom screen, but tested positive, had at least some signs of illness that were caught by an assessment the next day.

The findings, the research team said, highlight the need to screen for a diverse slate of symptoms. The study also calls for wider access to testing for shelter residents.

“Where there is an outbreak identified — and that is defined as having one case or more, then we definitely need to make available timely access to testing for all individuals,” lead author Dr. Vanessa Redditt said.

The new study comes on the heels of a from several Unity Health researchers, which also supports mass testing of all shelter residents if a single case is found.

Toronto Public Heath (TPH) currently makes shelter testing decisions based on things like layout, an infected person’s close contacts, and how effectively a site has implemented measures such as mask-wearing.

In some cases, it recommends everyone get tested, said Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer with TPH. But in others, it might recommend testing only one floor.

As of Monday, there were 10 COVID-19 cases reported across Toronto’s shelter system. Outbreaks within the system this fall have included one where , but an infected roommate didn’t show symptoms, and one at a refugee shelter where at least three people — — were asymptomatic.

In the case probed by the new study, residents were only screened for fevers, coughs and shortness of breath before testing, with six residents flagged. Five of six tested positive, plus 20 others — meaning 80 per cent of their cases may have at first appeared asymptomatic.

But a more thorough assessment the next day revealed that a dozen more of the infected residents had signs of illness. Within two weeks, all but three of the infected residents contacted for follow-up had reported at least one symptom.

While Redditt warned their data could be affected by recall bias — someone only noticing a mild symptom after being told they were sick — she described the change that a broader symptom screen could make in determining who had signs of COVID-19 as “striking.”

The most common symptom, both on the first day post-test and in the ensuing two weeks, was a headache — affecting 58.3 per cent of cases. The next most common symptom was loss of taste, with both exceeding the number who reported fevers, coughs and shortness of breath.

The study echoes , where only 0.7 per cent of residents with COVID-19 had a fever, 1.4 per cent had shortness of breath and 7.5 per cent had a cough.

The city’s asks about a variety of symptoms, including headaches.

Since the spring, Redditt believes there’s been “significant learning” about the virus.

To Rashid, their directives are now fairly clear: “Where in doubt, particularly people living in congregate living centres … the threshold needs to be very low for testing and isolation.”

Victoria Gibson is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering affordable housing. Her reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach her via email:

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‘He paid the price’: Barrie mother lays wreath for soldier son overcome by PTSD

Nov 24, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Master Cpl. Jonathan Woolvett didn’t die on the battlefield.

But the horrors he endured as a soldier in Afghanistan ultimately cost him his life.

The Canadian veteran, who saw two tours of duty in that wartorn country, was remembered with reverence Nov. 11 as his mother laid a wreath in his honour during a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Barrie Legion.

“He paid the price. He gave it all,” Diana Monteiro told Simcoe.com. “I tried to change his mind a million times not to go back there, but he always wanted to be a soldier ever since he was a little kid.”

Woolvett passed away March 17 at Royal Victoria Regional District Health Centre due to complications from catastrophic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He was 38.

Woolvett was a “boots-on-the-ground” soldier who saw the nightmare of war first-hand, once having to pick up the pieces of a fellow soldier who was killed by an explosive device.

Woolvett received the Medal of Sacrifice in 2013 for saving Canadian lives while fighting the Taliban.

“In a hail of bullets, he went and grabbed a friend a hundred feet away and brought him back in a helicopter,” his mother said. “They always said Jonathan was the first one in and the last one out. I’m very proud of him.”

At the end of his second tour in 2009, he returned to Canada physically able, but the Barrie-area resident never overcame the mental anguish he carried with him until he died of a heart attack in hospital.

“They call it the living death,” Monteiro said. “What never gets talked about is the ones that commit suicide when they come back.”

During an interview with Global News in 2014, Woolvett spoke about the nightmares he tried to quash with alcohol and prescribed medications.

“A lot of my nightmares are of stuff that didn’t necessarily happen over there. But it’s my greatest fears, like being overrun, being captured, my friends being systematically executed in front of me.”

In 2013, he made national headlines when his father addressed an all-party committee of MPs about the “tremendous disconnect” between the military chain of command and the medics treating soldiers with combat-related mental injuries.

Greg Woolvett told committee at the time his son was “drinking himself into stupidity” to wash away the nightmares, but appeared to be getting little help from his military commanders.

Still, Jon Woolvett had a gregarious side and was popular among his friends and teammates in the Barrie Molson Sportsmen Hockey League, where he went by the nickname “Gunny.”

He would tell his teammates stories of Afghanistan, but would lighten the mood with humorous anecdotes.

“He always was the entertainer,” his mother said. “When he was little, he was always the last one out of the dressing room because he was performing for his friends.”

Woolvett served in Afghanistan from Jan. 21 to Aug. 30, 2007, and Sept. 9, 2008, to March 22, 2009. He retired from the military on April 2, 2015.

He is buried in Beechwood National Military Cemetery in Ottawa.

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Canada’s top doctor has been reluctant to say tiny airborne particles spread COVID-19. Under pressure, she’s reconsidering

Nov 18, 2021 , , , , by shlf

OTTAWA—Canada’s top public health official says it may be time to revise federal guidance to provinces on how to prevent airborne infections.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Tuesday the science on whether COVID-19 is transmitted via tiny aerosolized particles indoors is “evolving” and more changes to protect health-care workers, especially in long-term-care homes, could be needed.

It’s a small but controversial concession by Tam, who is under pressure from an increasingly vocal group of Canadian nurses and some infectious disease specialists — one that could lead to more stringent requirements for costly N95 respirators not only for hospitals and long-term-care homes, but also for stricter rules in public workplaces outside of health-care settings as well.

Her statement comes months after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization airborne transmission of aerosolized particles may be possible in crowded, poorly ventilated settings.

Tam’s reluctance to definitively agree that there is airborne transmission may be baffling to some, yet epidemiologist Dr. David Fisman with the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, says it is difficult for her to marshal consensus.

“Dr. Tam is having to negotiate a very challenging medical-political landscape, which makes it hard for her to simply state what many of us now take for granted,” said Fisman.

“The complexities of this situation are really closely linked to the N95 supply chain and worries that that will dry up,” he said. “And also to some very well established voices on the Canadian infection control scene who are quite adamant that this disease can’t possibly be transmitted via aerosol.”

The main way the virus is believed to be transmitted from one person to another is via larger droplets that spread when people cough, sneeze, speak, sing or shout. Those droplets are believed to fall within a two-metre distance — hence the recommendation to wear a mask, stay physically apart, frequently wash hands, and don’t touch your face.

Tam told reporters Tuesday that there is more “science and data” emerging, and she believes smaller airborne virus particles that are exhaled and can remain suspended in the air for long periods of time do “exist.” But she said “the circumstances and their importance is still being worked out.”

Even in the absence of certainty in the data, Tam said she had already recommended universal masking policies in health-care settings because of the risk to health-care workers from people who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic.

Now, she said, “given evolving opinions and evidence we will of course go back and have another look at whether certain aspects of the guidance need to be reviewed as well.”

Federal guidance to provinces already recommends droplet and contact precautions for routine care of COVID-19 patients. It requires N95 respirator masks and personal protective gear for health workers whenever aerosol-generating medical procedures are carried out, such as intubating a patient.

Canadian nurses have called on Tam and the Public Health Agency of Canada to update that federal advice to set out even more stringent rules based on the “precautionary principle” that would require employers in both acute-care and long-term-care settings to equip personnel with N95s and PPE whenever the workers come in contact with COVID-positive patients.

“The federal guidance doesn’t go far enough,” said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses, in an interview Tuesday.

Silas said even now — 10 months into the pandemic — there are hospitals in Ontario and Alberta that do not mandate the wearing of N95 respirator masks for nurses entering units where there are COVID-positive patients.

Health-care workers can make a “point of care risk assessment” and if they deem there is a risk from a patient who, say, cannot be masked and is coughing violently or vomiting, the nurse or personal support worker can ask for an N95 to be supplied.

Yet Silas said some administrators are still reluctant to dispense them as a matter of course.

The issue, she said, “is cost and fear that the supply will run out.”

Tam said Tuesday she is looking at updating recommendations on ventilation. She said modern hospitals generally already have good ventilation; meanwhile she said HVAC systems should be serviced.

And Tam said for everyone, “masking indoors when you’re not with people in your household and certainly when you can’t maintain any kind of distancing” along with “improving ventilation would be the sort of circumstance where you can reduce the impact of aerosols.”

Tam said Tuesday she is “most excited about” getting experts in ventilation together with infectious disease experts and infection control practitioners “to see if we could not find the most scientifically informed and sensible path forwards.”

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

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UPDATE: Hwy. 400 cleared near Honey Harbour after truck malfunction

Nov 18, 2021 , , , , by shlf

UPDATE: Emergency crews have cleared the scene after a disabled tractor trailer was removed from Hwy. 400.

Southern Georgian Bay OPP officers had closed the southbound part of Hwy. 400 near the Honey Harbour exit to allow tow crews to clear the tractor trailer. 

Winter weather is causing delays on many roadways throughout Simcoe County today. Pack your patience and be on alert while driving.

The snowfall will continue today, with as much as 10 to 15 cm of . 

For more .

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Pair arrested for string of thefts, mischiefs on Midland street

Nov 2, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Two people have been charged in connection to a string of thefts and mischief incidents on Midland’s King Street.

A little before 5 a.m. on Oct. 19, officers were called to the King Street Hotel to investigate the theft of a motorcycle.

That led officers to locate and arrest a suspect who was attempting to commit another offence at a home on the street, police said. After a search, police found the suspect in possession of blue fentanyl.

Later in the morning, a King Street auto dealership reported that a number of vehicles awaiting repairs had been damaged, and some had been entered.

As a result of video surveillance, officers were able to identify two suspects.

A 31-year-old Penetanguishene man has been charged with six counts of mischief, theft under $5,000, trespassing and possession of an opioid.

He was held for a video bail hearing and will appear in court on Nov. 26.

A second person was arrested on Oct. 29.

A 31-year-old Midland man has been charged with six counts of mischief, and theft under $5,000

He was held for a video bail hearing and will appear in court on Dec. 3

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Doug Ford warns Justin Trudeau not to use Ottawa’s emergency powers to fight COVID-19

Nov 2, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Just watch me? Just watch out.

That’s the message from Premier Doug Ford when asked about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau potentially invoking federal emergency legislation to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, used the old War Measures Act during the 1970 October Crisis amid Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) terrorist fears, a move that remains controversial a half-century later.

While the current prime minister has resisted using what is now known as the Emergencies Act, which would restrict civil liberties, Ford warned doing so “wouldn’t go over too well, not just with me, with all 12 other premiers.” The War Measures Act was replaced by the Emergencies Act in 1988.

“That’s not their jurisdiction. We don’t need the nanny state telling us what to do. We understand our provinces,” the premier said Thursday during a campaign-style swing to a Hamilton shipyard.

“He’d have a kick back like he’s never seen from not just me, from every single premier, that just wouldn’t fly,” he said.

Ford emphasized he has been working “extremely well with the prime minister” and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland since COVID-19 struck Canada in March.

“All the ministers are in constant communication. That’s the way you get things done … not by … implementing restrictions and the feds telling us what to do.”

Any federal intervention would be “crossing the boundary,” the premier added.

“There’s one thing I understand about all the premiers is stick within your own jurisdiction.”

When invoked, the act gives the federal cabinet the right to take control of powers that are normally provincial or municipal.

On Tuesday, Trudeau emphasized he has been working closely with the provincial and territorial leaders.

“I’ve had … over 20 first ministers meetings since the beginning of this pandemic. The issue of the Emergencies Act has come up a number of times and I’ve continued to reassure them that I don’t see it as being necessary right now,” he said.

“I know that all Canadians are united in wanting to fight this pandemic. I know that all premiers are thinking about the health of their citizens as well as they think about the health of their economy and that’s why I’m confident we’re going to be able to continue to work together well and do the right things.”

Fifty years ago, at the urging of Quebec premier Robert Bourassa and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, the elder Trudeau invoked martial law after the FLQ kidnapped provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross.

Laporte was killed and his body found in a car trunk two days after the War Measures Act was implemented. Cross was released after two months as a hostage.

Last month, demanded the younger Trudeau apologize for his father’s actions, which led to hundreds of arbitrary arrests and detainments during the crisis.

In 1970, the then prime minister famously saidpressed him on how far he would go to deal with the FLQ terrorist threat.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter:

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Surge at emergency departments in Brampton, Etobicoke leads to transfers of in-patients to other hospitals, for the first time in the pandemic

Nov 2, 2021 , , , , by shlf

A crush of patients arriving at emergency departments in Brampton and Etobicoke have forced William Osler Health System to postpone some elective surgeries and — for the first time during the pandemic — transfer in-patients to other Toronto-area hospitals to ease dangerous overcrowding.

The surge of emergency patients — a mix of those with symptoms and those with other urgent health concerns — pushed Osler beyond capacity late Thursday, prompting its president and CEO to warn this could be the “leading edge of more difficult times for our communities.”

Even as Osler struggles to maintain its health-care services in Ontario’s biggest COVID-19 hot spots, the province on Friday eased public health measures for Peel Region, which had been under modified Stage 2 restrictions since mid-October.

The new provincial public health framework puts Peel in the red or “control” zone, which permits bars, restaurants and gyms to open for some indoor service starting Saturday. Soaring COVID-case counts with York Region and Ottawa into the more lenient orange or “restrict” zone.

Peel’s medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh, asked the province Friday to keep Peel in modified Stage 2 for another week, as was granted to Toronto.

“I certainly advocated for that given our ongoing challenges with contact tracing — — and also the recent developing challenges with capacity at William Osler,” Loh told the Star on Friday, noting the red control zone was not enough in his opinion to subdue the local epidemic.

“I’m working with our local leaders, our mayors, to take a look at what additional local restrictions we can bring into place so we can encourage people as much as possible to limit their close-contact interactions.”

Dr. Naveed Mohammad, Osler’s president and CEO, said he “supports completely” Loh’s efforts for more public health measures across Peel. Osler’s hospital system includes Brampton Civic Hospital, Etobicoke General Hospital and Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness.

“We can provide our colleagues in the government with our recommendations from a science and epidemiology (perspective) and what we’re seeing in the hospitals’ point of view,” he said. “Once the decisions are made we have to work with them to ensure we keep our communities and patients as safe as we possibly can.

“The province has made its decision and we will provide our feedback … and we will see where things go from there.”

In a statement issued Friday afternoon, the Ontario Hospital Association called the province’s decision to allow Peel to reopen in the new red control zone “reckless,” stating it “must be reversed immediately given the risks it poses to area hospitals, particularly William Osler Health System.”

Anthony Dale, the association’s president, told the Star that Osler faces “punishing pressures” to keep up with the health-care demands of its community at the best of times, but especially so in a pandemic and with Peel a major hot spot.

“The situation is precarious and fragile and a major surge in COVID patients would greatly destabilize William Osler’s operations,” he said, pointing to hospital systems in other regions and countries being overwhelmed during the pandemic’s fall wave.

“We’re in a situation where the circumstances could change very quickly,” Dale said. “And we may have the illusion of control, but all of the jurisdictions in the world that have made that assumption have paid a price.”

Starting Friday and going through to Saturday, Osler plans to transfer 15 to 20 patients from Brampton Civic and Etobicoke General to other GTA hospitals, after which the situation will be reassessed, according to an Osler spokesperson. More than 10 hospitals have offered Osler help, including Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Markham Stouffville Hospital, Mackenzie Health and the University Health Network.

Mohammad said transferring Osler in-patients to other hospitals because of overcrowding typically only happens about once a year. Until this week, Osler had not yet asked for such help during the pandemic, he said, adding that hospitals have offered to take both COVID and non-COVID patients.

As of Friday, Osler was caring for 55 patients with suspected COVID-19 and 57 confirmed COVID-positive patients, 15 of whom are in intensive care, Mohammad said. Each of these patients must isolate in a single room for infection control, he said.

“That really impacts our capacity and our real estate,” he said, adding that Osler has already opened up all possible spaces in its hospitals that can currently be staffed. “Finding staff to care for those patients is where the challenge starts.

“Last night (Thursday) we got to a point that if any more patients came in through the emergency who needed to be admitted, we could not possibly provide them a safe place to be held and be admitted.”

A COVID-19 outbreak on a surgical floor at Etobicoke General has also “compounded the situation,” Mohammad said.

Capacity pressures have also forced Osler to postpone 50 elective surgeries within the last two weeks, according to an Osler spokesperson. The hospitals will “continue to prioritize urgent and time-sensitive surgeries” in the coming weeks, the spokesperson said.

As of Friday, Peel still had the province’s highest COVID-19 infection rate of 120 cases per 100,000 population per week with a seven-day average of 264 new cases a day, according to the Star’s ongoing tally. Peel’s most recent epidemiological summary shows 6.8 per cent of COVID-19 tests in the region came back positive between Oct. 18 and Oct. 24; the same week Brampton reported a 9.6 per cent test positivity rate.

Currently, Osler has a COVID-19 test positivity rate of 11 per cent that includes tests from its assessment centres and hospital patients. A hospital spokesperson said data could not be broken down to individual hospital sites because “analyzing data into smaller subgroups may be misleading because the number tested is small.”

Mohammad said he is worried about the situation at Osler because it’s fuelled by the escalating number of cases in the community

“I’m worried about where things are going. I’m also worried that this may be the leading edge of a wave of patients that may need more hospital care.”

Dale said the Ontario Hospital Association is reviewing the province’s new colour-coded public health measures framework with its partner hospitals and outside experts and plans to submit recommendations to the province next week.

“We do see some significant room for improvement,” he said, noting the definition of hospital capacity in the document is not clear and the threshold levels for the COVID-19 reproduction rate are too high. “As it is right now, it leaves essentially no room for error.”

Megan Ogilvie is a Toronto-based health reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Collingwood Curling Club asks for break on annual loan payment to town

Nov 2, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The Collingwood Curling Club has asked to defer its annual loan payment to the town as it deals with the costs of addressing the pandemic.

Club president Bob Riches made the request of council’s strategic initiative committee. The committee recommended the request be considered as part of the municipality’s overall budget discussions.

The loan is the club’s share of $1 million in renovation costs undertaken on the building several years ago.

The club’s annual payment to the town for the loan is $23,750, and payments were scheduled to be made over 20 years.

“We’d like to make our 20 equal payments, we just don’t want to make a payment this year,” he said.

The pandemic has affected the club’s operations on several fronts this season, Riches told the committee. The club has reduced the number of playing surfaces to five from six, and limited times for curling, to maintain physical distancing guidelines.

The 140-year-old club typically has 550 members, with several leagues and programs for wheelchair curling, Special Olympics, and schools. It also hosts fundraising bonspiels for Breaking Down Barriers and Hospice Georgian Triangle.

This year, because of the pandemic, membership is down to around 360.

Riches expected the club’s revenue this year to be $120,000, with expenses of $150,000 — including $25,000 for cleaning and other health and safety protocols related to the pandemic. Riches said cleaning costs may top $40,000, however.

The club also sets aside money for a capital fund. Riches said the club is planning for an eventual replacement of the building’s roof, and every few years it needs to replace equipment such as the curling stones.