Latest information on the outbreak of coronavirus on February 16

The state’s current active case load is 297, with one hospitalized. There are also 25 new estimated cases, all in the Eastern Health Area.

According to a Tuesday update, the state has tested 2,070 new daily records in the last 24 hours.

The rapidly developing situation puts a strain on state medical staff. The resource has been redirected to respond to the outbreak of coronavirus variant B117. This includes well over 200 staff currently assigned to inspection clinics in the area. Eastern Health CEO David Diamond told CBC News..

About 500 healthcare workers are quarantined in the Eastern Health area, according to Diamond. As of Monday afternoon, nine people were confirmed to be COVID-19 positive.

“I’ve seen it in individual units and departments that staff can’t attend because of self-isolation. Obviously, we need to fill those gaps: temporary and temporary staff, and regular staff working overtime. “He told CBC St. John’s Morning Show on Tuesday.

“I’ve never seen a scenario where I couldn’t provide care, but it’s logistically very difficult because it means using all the possible resources that can be found to fill the gap,” he said. Said. “We were able to do that, and we have reduced our service, so I think we can do it in the future.”

Follow the progress of the latest NL pandemic

From People

Israel is a world leader in the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine and has already been successful, but the campaign faces hesitant demographics and criticism of not vaccination of Palestinians. 6:05

By letter

When schools are reopened in Ontario’s most devastated areas, experts urge the state not to lift other COVID restrictions.

Many students were at home on Tuesday due to winter weather, but weeks of online learning for thousands of students and parents are nearing end as schools in Toronto and the neighboring Peel and York areas reopen. I am.

Looking at the surprising rise in more infectious variants of the new coronavirus, some public health officials and epidemiologists say that schools are the only place to reopen in the near future in areas of high prevalence in the community. Warns that it should be.

Returning to school means that students, parents, teachers and staff will leave home and move around the community more than ever before, said Dr. Lawrence Law, Head of Health in the Peel area.

“When you make such changes in the community, you usually want to wait at least one or two. [virus] We will examine the incubation period to see how it affects the number of cases. “

“I feel our small business,” he added. “”[But] With just a few more weeks, or even a few more weeks, the vaccine may come in and completely avoid the third wave.

If the number of cases increases after the school opens, Loh and other experts may track the source of infection and identify variants of concern unless other potential community causes are mixed at the same time. He said it would be much easier.

“We tend to try to move too many levers at once … and we have a hard time knowing what is causing the increase in cases — we see an increase in cases. “If and when,” said Ashley Chuite, a disease epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Dallalana School of Public Health.

Read more about expert concerns

Call center, web portal for booking reservations for upcoming vaccines in Ontario

The person responsible for the Ontario vaccine distribution program will help the state schedule the next vaccine to get the COVID-19 vaccine, with the call center and online booking system up and running within a few weeks. It states.

“Around next week and a half, we plan to open a call center where even people who are new to online can call and book nearby locations based on their OHIP card and zip code. Code,” said retired General Rick Hiller. Told to Power & Politics on Monday.

The online booking system will start around March 1st.

With the expected increase in Pfizer vaccine doses this week, Ontario hopes to end the second vaccination for residents of long-term care facilities and high-risk elderly homes in the state. Priority. “

The goal is for the group over 80 to start vaccination in the first week of March, he said.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it plans to inoculate Ontario with more than 400,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine and 156,780 doses starting this week.

However, as in some parts of the United States, winter weather can delay delivery to Canada. It learned on Tuesday..

Hear more from General Hillier about Ontario’s plans

None of Ottawa’s new travel rules apply to truck drivers

According to the Canada Border Services Agency, of the 10 million entry into Canada since March 21, 2020, nearly half (4.6 million) were made by drivers of commercial trucks crossing overland.

Despite these numbers, the federal government’s recently announced new travel measures, including the COVID-19 inspection on arrival, have not yet been applied to commercial truck drivers.

Drivers are exempt from quarantine, but must follow other safeguards, such as wearing masks, physical distance, and answering border health questions.

Despite following all the rules, Calgary truck driver Luis Franco said he still feels dangerous because he encounters many people in unpreventive US rest areas.

“Many Americans, like the southern and western states, don’t believe in COVID,” he said. “To step into a truck stop, refuel, or do whatever you have to do [it appears as though] Eighty percent of people do not wear masks and have no social distance. “

Franco wants the government to test COVID-19 truck drivers every time he travels to Canada.

More than 100 Canadian science and health professionals have signed a petition calling on the federal government to implement strict border measures. This includes the COVID-19 test for anyone entering Canada, including mandatory workers.

“Many of us are very likely to be asymptomatic,” Franco said.

Although quick inspections can be adopted, Ontario-based truck driver Leanne Steeves warns that “waiting at the border is insane.”

Public Security Minister Bill Blair said in an interview on Sunday Rosemary Burton Live The government is also considering introducing COVID-19 testing for critical cross-border workers, the CBC News Network said.

Read more about the problem

Always get information Latest COVID-19 data..

Science

Why it is best to avoid painkillers before the COVID-19 vaccine

The jury is examining what happens to the immune system when taking drugs such as Advil and Tylenol after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, but based on research on other vaccines such as influenza, it is immune. Reactions from tablets, which may have a dull effect, CBC News Amina Zafer writes..

Mahyar Etminan, an associate professor of ophthalmology, pharmacology and medicine at the University of British Columbia, said drugs such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motlin) before or near vaccination I looked up the data on taking the drug.

With preprint Etimanan and his colleagues, who will be published in the journal CHEST, compared other infants who did not receive acetaminophen in a randomized trial of infants who received acetaminophen immediately after vaccination. It was shown that the antibody level decreased. In another study of adults, antibody levels did not decrease after vaccination and taking acetaminophen. The immune response can differ between children and adults.

Dr. Sharon Evans, a professor of oncology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, said the drugs mentioned above may suppress fever, which enhances all the components needed for a protective immune response. I will.

Fever “literally mobilizes cells to move them to the right place in the body at the right time,” Evans said.

Vaccination side effects such as arm pain at the injection site or widespread effects such as headache, malaise, fever, muscle aches, and arthralgias are unpleasant but generally mild.

“All these side effects are like Berlinger, which tells you that your body is boosting your immune response,” Evans said. “That’s what you want. If you don’t get that response, it’s sometimes disappointing.”

What advice does the Federal Health Authority of the National Advisory Board on vaccination give?

“NACI recommends that prophylactic oral analgesics or antipyretics (eg, acetaminophen or ibuprofen) should not be used on a daily basis before or during vaccination, but their use is a vaccine. It is not a contraindication to vaccination, “said the advisory board. “Oral analgesics or antipyretics may be considered for the management of adverse events (such as pain or fever, respectively) if they occur after vaccination.”

And finally…

Teaching Urdu to her granddaughter gave this Ontario woman a pandemic purpose

A widow and retired teacher from Mississauga, Ontario, Zahida Murtaza struggled like many other Canadians during the first months of the pandemic.

Her 20-year-old granddaughter, Marium Vahed, then contacted her last summer and asked Murtaza, who came to Canada from Pakistan in 1971, to teach her how to speak Urdu.

“I wanted to have access to the Urdu and Pakistani worlds through that beautiful poem,” Marium said. “I came up with a daily lesson about FaceTime, so I started right away.”

Vahed and her 17-year-old sister, Laila, began taking virtual lessons with their grandmother from their residence in Brampton, Ontario. Their two teenage cousins, Sakeena and Manaal Syed, have also decided to join and are enjoying enhanced access. They live in the same house as Murtaza.

Even though the current blockade in Mississauga was not in place, Murtaza did not escape much earlier in the pandemic due to an autoimmune disease.

The six grandmothers quickly discovered that teaching Urdu for their grandchildren and nieces was more than just teaching in a language.

“My mood has improved completely,” Murtaza said. “There was a direction in my life. It’s transgenerational. It’s something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”

Read more about family relationships

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