Six new deaths linked to COVID-19 have been recorded in Huron and Perth counties over the past two weeks, the majority linked to outbreaks at area long-term care and retirement homes.
Six new deaths linked to COVID-19 have been recorded in Huron and Perth counties over the past two weeks, the majority linked to outbreaks at area long-term care and retirement homes.
Huron Perth public health reported the latest deaths in a data update on Wednesday.
Five have been connected to outbreaks, public health officials confirmed, while the other was recorded in the wider community.
The health unit has recently changed the frequency with which the region’s COVID-19 dashboard will be updated. That data, previously refreshed once a week, will now be updated twice a month instead.
“This change is being implemented as we shift our COVID response into our regular public health operations,” the health unit noted on the dashboard. “At this time, COVID continues to circulate widely.”
There were eight active COVID-19 outbreaks in the region on Wednesday, seven in local long-term care and retirement homes and one in an unnamed congregate-living setting. There have been 129 COVID-related deaths recorded in Huron and Perth counties since the pandemic was first declared in March 2020.
Although pandemic-related public-health restrictions have been lifted in Ontario for several months, Ontarians are being advised to keep up with vaccinations and wear masks indoors as doctors warn of a worsening respiratory illness season that’s hitting children — and the pediatric health system — particularly hard.
Physicians at a news conference hosted by the Ontario Medical Association said Wednesday that influenza arrived early in the province and more than half of Canadian cases of the illness so far have been in children and teenagers.
The early arrival of the flu, a resurgence in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and the continued spread of COVID-19 has made for a “triple threat” respiratory season that’s sending many children to the hospital and the situation is expected to get worse in the coming months, doctors said.
“It’s a little bit of a perfect storm,” said Dr. Rod Lim, emergency medical director of the ER at the Children’s Hospital in nearby London.
The pediatric health-care system is under significant strain due to staffing challenges, medication supply chain issues and early circulation of viruses that typically peak in January, February and March, Lim said.
Lim’s hospital is currently seeing “record volumes,” including young infants arriving with difficulty breathing, and he said he expects that high hospitalization numbers from viral illnesses “will get worse before it gets better.”
Some medical experts have begun to call for renewed mask mandates in light of viral illness trends and pressures on hospitals, and Toronto’s board of health this week asked its top doctor to explore mandatory masking as an option to mitigate disease spread.
Ontario’s chief medical officer told The Canadian Press last week he would make a decision soon about masking recommendations based on viral illness trends that are straining the health system.
Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday he would follow Moore’s advice when it comes to masks, but said people should wear a mask if they can and know they are at risk.
He said he planned to get a flu shot and a fourth COVID-19 vaccine soon, and advised others to do the same.
“I’m going to head out there and get my fourth one. I’m going to get a flu shot because I can’t chance it, old guys like me,” he said. “We’re going to get a shot just to be safe.”
Dr. Vinita Dubey, associate medical officer of health for Toronto, said masks can help reduce the spread of various viral illnesses that are circulating in the province, including COVID-19, and noted that children were able to wear them in school without issue for much of the pandemic.
She said there are ways to boost uptake of masks without officially mandating them if the chief medical officer of health strongly recommends them.
“With that strong recommendation, mask usage does increase even without having to go to a mandate,” she said.
-With files from the Canadian Press