The World Health Organization has renamed 2019-nCoV, with the formal name of COVID-19. This name change will be reflected in future documents published by the ministry.

The Holland America Line cruise ship that was rejected from docking at five ports over fears of the coronavirus will be allowed to dock tomorrow, Thursday, in the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where its passengers can finally disembark.

The Holland America Line cruise ship that was rejected from docking at five ports over fears of the coronavirus was allowed to dock today, Thursday, in the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Beyond Canada, there is currently a cruise ship in quarantine off the coast of Japan with a phased disembarkment in-progress. The ship has 12 Canadians with confirmed cases of COVID-19. Three are in a local hospital –two in stable condition and one in serious condition – who are keeping our hopes that all will recover well.

How can we lower the chance of future outbreaks of coronavirus? One of the links scientists are studying is climate change, reinforcing the demand to tackle climate change as a public health imperative.

We continue to hear that supplies disappear and that is a risk to all, should we need them. Please continue to remind colleagues that personal protective equipment (PPE) are to be used only when there is a need, as per the EOC guidelines.

As we shared yesterday, initial efforts to understand the behavior of the COVID-19 virus by researchers in Singapore suggest it is different from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and has more similarities with H1N1. Like influenza, COVID-19 is infectious when symptoms are mild, the researchers found.

We received one question today and we appreciated it as it allows us to continue providing facts. The question related to “four people from Trenton who have shown positive and have been transferred off base to 3 different hospitals. Are facts not being shared truthfully?????.”

As informed earlier, the Federal Government announced on Saturday that it has chartered a plane to repatriate Canadians on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, given the extraordinary circumstances faced by passengers and to lighten the burden on the Japanese healthcare system.

We had a FANTASTIC day at RNAO’s 20th annual Queen’s Park Day. Shining a light on the key health issues affecting nursing practice and the health of Ontarians, 130 RNAO leaders engage in vibrant conversations with about 40 MPPs from all parties, including Premier Doug Ford, Minister Christine Elliott, NDP health critic France Gelinas, interim leader of the Liberal Part John Fraser, and leader of the Green Party Mike Schreiner.