covid ontario: Latest News

COVID — a move doctors and advocates say is a crucial first step to better understanding, treating and destigmatizing a growing problem.The new fee code came into effect on Jan. 13.

TORONTO — Ontario’s lack of a long COVID strategy has led the health sector to cobble together “fragmented” clinics that are at risk of closure and may lead to little to no support for patients, internal Ministry of Health documents warn.Long COVID is not yet well understood, but the current and likely rising volume of patients will have an effect on Ontario’s recovery and may place added pressures on emergency rooms, say the documents obtained under a Freedom of Information request.“Ontario does not have a coordinated approach to care for patients with PCC (Post COVID-19 Condition),” the health ministry’s strategic policy branch wrote last June.“While some providers are responding to the immediate demand for post-COVID care, these offerings are insufficient, fragmented, and unsustainable without dedicated funding.”Between 10 and 20 per cent of people who have had COVID-19 still experience symptoms 12 or more weeks post-infection, the documents note. Researchers estimate 1.4 million Canadians are living with long COVID.

COVID-19 infection should get their next vaccine booster shot this spring.Dr. Kieran Moore says high-risk individuals include anyone age 65 and older, pregnant women and people living in senior care facilities, such as long-term care homes.The list also includes people over 18 who are immunocompromised as well as First Nations, Inuit or Metis age 55 and older and their non-Indigenous household members of the same age.

mask mandate when respiratory viruses surged in the fall may not have eased the crush on pediatric hospitals, a Public Health Ontario science brief obtained by The Canadian Press concludes.The brief — which was not proactively made public, unlike the reports done by the now-defunct science table predecessor — provides a glimpse of the evidence on which Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore made his decision to go no further than a “strong” recommendation on masking in mid-November.The effects of masking on the transmission of COVID-19 are strong, the brief from late November notes.

The Omicron COVID-19 variant could ramp up its spread through Canadian communities in the coming days, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam warned on Monday.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]Vaisman compared amusement parks and medical clinics.