August 28 2020 COVID-19 report

Dear Colleagues: Welcome to our Friday, August 28 report – now in the seventh month of COVID-19 in Ontario. Visit the COVID-19 Portal for the many resources RNAO offers on COVID-19. Find earlier updates here, including thematic pieces in my blog. RNAO media hits and releases on the pandemic can be found here. Daily Situational Reports from Ontario's MOH EOC can be found here. As always, feel free to share this report and links with anyone interested.

Please note I will not be issuing my blog next Friday, September 4, as I plan to have a relaxing long weekend off – first since January! I will resume on September 11th.

Reminder to take action regarding nursing homes before it’s too late! Add your name to almost 9,000 who have written to Premier Ford demanding the Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee and to begin hiring staff in August! So far hiring is not happening – all we hear is about layoffs in LTC – and that is shocking! Come the fall and a likely winter surge, we will be scrambling to attain the human resources required to protect residents and staff.  

RNAO remains concerned about the reopening schools in Ontario, and calls on the Ontario government to follow the evidence and mandate the physical distance, proper ventilation and  masking for all school children that will keep them, their families and our communities safe. See our letter to Dr. David Williams, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, detailing RNAO’s concerns and recommendations. RNAO welcomes the federal funding announced to advance schools’ safe re-opening and Ontario’s addition of 125 public health nurses (PHN) for a total now of 625. Please add your voice urgently: retweet.

We are also thrilled to share with readers that the Ministry of the Solicitor General will be launching this year a Nurse Practitioner-Led Integrated Primary Care Model for Corrections. This new model will see 75 NPs providing primary care in Ontario’s correctional institutions. This is great news for inmates and for the over 1,600 NP members of RNAO some of whom we know will be delighted to serve as primary care providers for this population – especially given the vulnerabilities this Fall may bring with its second COVID-19 wave. RNAO with its Correctional Nurses Interest Group has consistently urged that the health care of inmates must be transferred to the Ministry of Health. While we will continue to recommend this be the case, the news regarding NP positions to focus on primary care is a welcome improvement. We will keep you informed as we are authorized to share all details. 

RNAO letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding Speech from the Throne

In a 27 August letter to the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers and federal party leaders, RNAO calls for action to address some of the profound inequities laid bare by COVID-19, which has exposed our collective failure to build a country that provides health, safety and security for all. RNAO has exposed our failure to protect seniors, who all across this country have succumbed to COVID-19, and thus we call on the federal government to establish a Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee as a national standard. Likewise, people experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to illness and disease than the housed. RNAO is asking government to adopt the six point Recovery For All plan of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH). RNAO is also advising the federal government to end this year, the Year of the Nurse, by re-instating a national chief nursing officer.

You can find the full PDF version including all endnotes and references here. Please join in signing RNAO’s Action Alert to our Prime Minister in advance of the Speech from the Throne, as well as retweet and post in social media.

Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,

In light of the government’s decision to prorogue parliament, we are writing to you in lieu of our planned submission to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) on the matter of the government’s response to the pandemic. We trust that our recommendations below are timely as the government puts its mind to how to build a post-pandemic Canada that is more resilient, healthier and safer.

The Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) represents more than 44,000 registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students across Ontario. Its members have been on the frontlines of this pandemic from the start. Nurses, alongside other health workers, have witnessed close-up the devastating impact of COVID-19 as they have provided nursing care with expertise and courage – to the best of their abilities – in spite of a health-care system and a social safety net that let them and so many other Canadians down.

It has been said many times, in many places, and in many ways that COVID-19 has had a profoundly inequitable impact on Canadians. It is clear, nearly seven months into this pandemic, that COVID has preyed on the most vulnerable Canadians, and in doing so, has exposed our collective failure to build a country that provides health, safety and security to all.

This is not a failing of a single government or even a single order of government. And most certainly, a plan to “build back better” will need to involve all orders of government and the many of us who are eager and able to assist. A plan with ambition for this country, as is required at this moment, requires bold leadership. That, RNAO believes, falls first-and-foremost to you. We are, therefore, urging that your government’s plan address two issues that through this pandemic have been exposed as critical to the health and well-being of Canadians: long-term care and housing. 

Long-term care (LTC)

In your remarks announcing an upcoming speech from the throne, you made reference to “the shortfalls in health care that meant soldiers were caring for seniors.” The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) report on the Ontario long-term care homes it was helping recover from COVID‐19 showed all of us in simple, stark language how a severe shortage of staffing, equipment and support badly harmed and killed hundreds of the most vulnerable people in Ontario.

While the CAF was assigned to provincially prioritized homes, COVID-19 revealed systemic issues across Ontario’s long-term care sector. As of Aug. 25, COVID-19 had claimed the lives of 1,847 long-term care home residents in Ontario, accounting for nearly two-thirds of COVID-19-related deaths in this province.

Ontario’s long-term care sector is not alone in its deficiencies. As of late May, Quebec, Alberta and Nova Scotia were faring worse, pointing to a national problem. Indeed, data gathered by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) show that as of late May, “LTC residents accounted for 81 per cent of all reported COVID-19 deaths in Canada, compared with an average of 42 per cent in other OECD countries (ranging from less than 10 per cent in Slovenia and Hungary to 66 per cent in Spain).”

Many of these deaths were preventable. In June 2020, RNAO released a list detailing dozens and dozens of recommendations in the areas of staffing and funding made in 35 reports as well as a public inquiry and a coroner’s inquest looking into the problems in LTC in Ontario over the past 20 years. There are consistent themes and common recommendations in all of these reports. They point to the need for more staffing in long-term care homes, the proper mix of regulated and unregulated staffing to meet the increasing acuity of residents, and a funding model that responds to growing needs.

Also in June, RNAO submitted the “Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee” to Ontario’s Long-term care Staffing Study Advisory Group as its response, based on many years of engagement in long-term care sector issues.

Prime Minister Trudeau, we urge you and your team to consider the following basic care guarantee as a national standard in response to this workforce crisis:

1. Ensure each long‐term care (LTC) home provides a minimum of four (4) worked hours of nursing and personal care to each resident per day, according to the following staff mix formula: 20 per cent registered nurses (RN), 25 per cent licensed practical nurses (LPN) (called registered practical nurses (RPN) in Ontario), and 55 per cent personal support workers (PSW), equating to the following number of resident direct care hours:

a) a minimum of 0.8 worked hours (48 minutes) of RN direct care per resident, per day

b) a minimum of 1.0 worked hour (60 minutes) of RPN/LPN direct care per resident, per day

c) a minimum of 2.2 worked hours (132 minutes) of PSW direct care per resident, per day

2. Ensure each LTC home employs a full-time equivalent (FTE) NP per 120 residents, in the role of attending nurse practitioner (NP). In regions where there is a shortage of NPs, employ a clinical nurse specialist (CNS). 

3. Ensure each LTC home employs an FTE nursing staff member (preferably an RN) to support the functions of infection prevention and control, quality improvement, staff education, onboarding and orientation.

4. Ensure each LTC home implements the following mandated standards:

a) Disallow LTC staff (RN, RPN/LPN, PSW) from working in other LTC homes.

b) Ensure nursing and personal care salaries in LTC are commensurate with those paid to the same health workers in other sectors, such as hospitals.

c) Ensure full‐time employment with benefits is offered to staff interested in full‐time work, to enable continuity of care for residents, improve staff retention and remove the need to work in multiple locations.

5. Ensure each LTC home includes an appropriate complement of interprofessional staff, including: physiotherapy, rehabilitation therapy, speech therapy, social work, dietary and dental care.

HOUSING

Housing is a determinant of health. In the best of times, people experiencing homelessness are more vulnerable to illness and disease than the housed. Estimates suggest that many years of living without housing leads to age-related ailments typical of housed individuals 20 years older. But these are the worst of times, where vulnerability is targeted by a deadly, sweeping virus.

Public health advice during this pandemic has reinforced the importance of housing as a defence against COVID-19. “Stay home, self-isolate, wash hands frequently,” has been the constant refrain for months. Yet each year, nearly 250,000 Canadians experience homelessness – 35,000 on any given night. Another 1.7 million Canadians have core housing needs and, under the severe economic strain of this pandemic, are vulnerable to joining the numbers of homeless – or have already.

There is nothing inevitable about homelessness in a country as wealthy as ours. In such a country, allowing persons to experience homelessness should be seen as societal decay and government abandonment. Homelessness is the product of decades of public policy choices by all orders of government. We implore you to make different choices.

RNAO is joining thousands of Canadians and dozens of organizations – including the Canadian Network for the Health and Housing of People Experiencing Homelessness – in calling for the federal government to adopt the Recovery For All plan of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH). The plan has six planks:

• Expanded federal investment in community-based homelessness responses.
• A national, guaranteed minimum income that will ensure those in greatest need have the necessary financial resources to meet their basic needs and prevent homelessness when times are tough.
• The construction of 300,000 new, permanently affordable and supportive housing units for enhanced rental support for low-income Canadians.
• Meaningful implementation of the right to housing, including the appointment of a national housing advocate and national housing council.
• Curtailment of the impacts of financialization of rental housing markets.
• Support and adequate resources for the development and implementation of an urban and rural Indigenous housing and homelessness strategy by urban, rural and northern Indigenous peoples and housing and service providers.

CAEH’s Recovery For All plan has the complementary benefit of spurring Canada’s post-pandemic economic recovery through investment in housing, creating nearly 500,000 much-needed construction and social services jobs over the next 10 years, and saving taxpayers over $18 billion.

CONCLUSION

This pandemic has taught us lessons in the cruelest way – with the loss of life. It is, therefore, imperative that we take these lessons to heart and act on them. We owe it to those who lost their lives to COVID-19, as well as those who remain most vulnerable to this disease – the elderly and the homeless. 

A lesson that we hope has not escaped our government is the value of nurses and nursing to our health system. We have been at the frontlines of this pandemic since COVID-19 struck our country, doing heroic work with the resources available to care for all Canadians. But without question, a greater and more strategic deployment of nurses in our health system would have enabled Canada and Canadians to fare better through this pandemic. 

In RNAO’s recently released policy document, Enhanced Community Care for Ontarians 3.0, we argue for an accessible, equitable, person-centred, integrat­ed and publicly funded health system that can only be realized when we have a fully integrated provincial health system anchored in primary care with enhanced community care capacity. Such a system depends on having RNs and NPs working upstream in public health, having RNs, NPs and RPNs/LPNs providing primary care to a much larger extent, having RNs, NPs, CNSs and RPNs/LPNs providing care in the home, having nurses providing minimum hours of direct care in nursing homes, and having all nurses practising to full scope. In short, nurses are central to achieving universal health care and advancing a healthier Canada.

As a final recommendation to you – and as a reminder of our original ask during Nursing Week, when you so kindly visited the Ottawa Public Health Unit – RNAO urges you to end this year, the Year of the Nurse, by re-instating a national chief nursing officer. Countries around the world, and provincial governments such as Ontario, as well as major health organizations, have chief nursing officers who play a critical role in focusing attention on social determinants of health, transforming health policies, improving health outcomes and advancing health systems. You may remember your pledge to consider re-instating a national chief nursing officer position when, in 2019, you responded to RNAO’s federal election survey. We believe this pandemic has proven our case. Canada would be a healthier country if nurses and nursing had a voice in our federal government.

Prime Minister Trudeau, we thank you for this opportunity to share our thoughts and concerns, born of much experience, research, hard work and, of late, grief. We wish you courage to make the changes necessary to ensure our most vulnerable are put first among us. If there is anything worthy at all that can come of the lives lost to COVID-19 and the grief it has caused, that would be it. Canada ought to be a place where we assume a duty to care for each other, to protect each other from harm, to secure for each other our human rights, and to lift each other up as high as we can. In light of what COVID-19 has exposed, that is no small task. It is, however, a necessary one. And it is yours to lead. RNAO is here to help, support and, if the goal is delivered, applaud. Please call on us.

Yours warmly,

 

Doris Grinspun, RN, MSN, PhD,

LLD(hon), Dr(hc), FAAN, O.ONT.

Chief Executive Officer

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

 

Morgan Hoffarth, RN, MScN

President

Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario

 RNAO joins the Just Recovery for All campaign

RNAO is adding its voice to a campaign launched in June supported by hundreds of progressive organizations in Canada calling for a just and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. We can’t go back to business-as-usual after the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why we’re building a movement for a #JustRecoveryforAll that puts people first and will allow us to #BuildBackBetter.

Six principles stand at the root of the Just Recovery for All campaign:

1. Put people’s health and wellbeing first, no exceptions.
2. Strengthen the social safety net and provide relief directly to people.
3. Prioritize the needs of workers and communities.
4. Build resilience to prevent future crises.
5. Build solidarity and equity across communities, generations, and borders.
6. Uphold Indigenous rights and work in partnership with Indigenous peoples.

As we continue to respond to the COVID-19 health crisis and prepare to rebuild, organizations across Canada want governments to know that we cannot go back to the way things were. For years, we have witnessed the results of chronic underinvestment and inaction in the face of the ongoing crises of colonialism, human rights abuses, social inequity, ecological degradation, and climate change. Now, the COVID-19 crisis is forcing governments and civil society alike to reckon with the inadequacies and inequities of our systems.

RNAO is the first large nursing organization in Canada to join, and we urge all other nursing organizations to add their voices to this tremendous international initiative. RNAO has been particularly active in recent months addressing structural inequities that led to vulnerable populations suffering the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. In our letter to Prime Minister Trudeau (above) we urged government to take action on vulnerable seniors and people experiencing homelessness. We also encouraged stronger federal leadership in health policy by appointing a national chief nursing officer.

Please join the social media campaign here.

Update on Health System Transformation & COVID-19 webinars

On Monday, September 14, 6:45 - 8:00 pm, our upcoming webinar will be on: What kind of mindset and action is needed now?

Community-anchored care is one reason why some regions of the world have fared better that others in their COVID-19 response. Come hear about successes from places like Cuba and the Balearic Islands (Spain) and discuss how these lessons apply to Ontario Health System transformation.

Ontario is at a crossroads. We can slip back into a hospital dominated model of care or re-calibrate the system to focus on prevention, health promotion and surveillance in primary care, and a robust home care system that doesn't leave long-term care behind.

Come talk about the vision, mindset and action needed now for real health system transformation.

Registration and details are here.

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On Tuesday, September 15, 7:00-8:30 pm, we present a webinar on Approaches to Mental Health and Substance use for Health-Care Providers Supporting Indigenous People and Communities During COVID-19. This webinar is in partnership with Siouz Lookout First Nations Health Authority (SLFNHA), Chiefs of Ontario (COO), Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). During this presentation, participants will learn:

• an overview of mental health and substance use issues in Indigenous communities
• the impact of COVID-19 on these issues
• withdrawal management tools and resources
• prevention and management of opioid overdoses

Audience: registered nurses, nurse practitioners, registered practical nurses and nursing students across care settings, primary care providers, public health and health promotion professionals, allied health-care providers and policy-makers.

Note: Webinar will focus on nurses and health-care providers supporting First Nations communities and organizations; however, all are welcome to attend.

Presenters:

• Mae Katt, NP, Thunder Bay
• Dr. Sharon Cirone,  Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority
• Dr. Lindsay Hancock, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority

Registration and updates are here.

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Info on recent webinars:

• On August 10 we focused on nurses’ mental health and wellbeing. The global pandemic has exacerbated health and mental health concerns amongst nurses. Shortages of PPE, fear of infecting family members, isolation from family members, increased emotional and physical exhaustion, and inability to take time off – all exacerbated mental health concerns among nurses which predated the pandemic. We heard about the Healthy Professional Worker Partnership that aims to identify interventions to better support nurses’ mental health and facilitate healthy return to work. An article presenting the issues is here. The guest speakers were Abby Ayoub (University of Ottawa), Melanie Lavoie-Tremblay (McGill University) and Ivy Bourgeault (University of Ottawa). You can watch the video and see the presentations slides here.

• On July 6 we focused on Reuniting families and residents in LTC: What will it take? We heard from a panel as they discussed this critical and timely topic and heard about related updates from RNAO, including ECCO 3.0, Bill 175 and the Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee. You can watch the video and see the presentations slides here.
• On July 1, we hosted Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician and one of the organizers of #Masks4Canada. She spoke about what we need to do to have a successful re-opening of the economy, and the role that COVID-19 surveillance, good data and masking have in achieving that. You can watch it here.
• On June 22 we discussed the Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Communities with three guest speakers: Ontario Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald; Mae Katt, Nurse Practitioner with Temagami First Nation; and Marilee A. Nowgesic, CEO of the Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association. You can watch it here.

#Togetherwecandoit

Today is day #162 of RNAO’s #TogetherWeCanDoIt campaign. RNAO began this campaign on March 19 to cheer up health care workers and others in essential services. A central pillar of our campaign is #Maskathon to help spread the message and the actions of masks-for-all!

Check this week’s #Maskathon winner – Congratulations!!! Other fab pics include Lhamo Dolkar here and Ann-Marie Gilbert here. Also, check here competition about designing and wearing masks! 

The #Maskathon campaign competed big time with the launching and training of our latest BPSO-OHT in Ottawa – they beat #Maskathon with hundreds of tweets! Check some of them here, here, here and here! Thanks also @ESOEO_OEOHT alongside @C_Mulroney for also joining #Maskathon – awesome role modeling for all!

Visit our website for #Maskathon message alongside RNAO’s Maskathon Portal where you can borrow graphics for your own social media play! And, join us on the #Maskathon challenge by wearing your mask correctly  as together we educate and encourage everyone – to wear a mask including children!

Post your pics using #Maskathon because #TogetherWeCanDoIt.

MOH EOC Situational Report

As announced above, we will be posting each day the Daily Situational Reports from Ontario's MOH EOC at RNAO’s website. That way, you will be able access the Ministry’s guidance without having to wait for my COVID-19 report. Again, the link is here and you can check it every day.

Since this report will come out once weekly, that will provide a more timely access to Ministry guidance.

For a more detailed Ontario epidemiological summary from Public Health Ontario, you can always go here.

Here is a segment from the latest Situation Report #216 for 28 August: 

 

Case count as of 8:00 am August 28, 2020 / Nombre de cas à 8h00 le 28 août 2020
Area / Région	Case count / Nombre de cas	Change from yesterday / Changement par rapport à hier	Deaths / Décès	Change from yesterday / Changement par rapport à hier
Worldwide total / Total mondial	24 661 991	+296 081	836 344	+5 969
Canada*	126 848	+431	9 102	+08
Ontario**	41 935	+122	2 809	+06

Update :

• Directive #3 has been updated to clarify requirements around short-stay and temporary absences. The directive is available on the ministry’s website.

Staying in touch        

Please continue to keep in touch and share questions, comments and challenges. Send these to me at dgrinspun@rnao.ca and copy my executive assistant, Peta-Gay (PG) Batten <pgbatten@rnao.ca>. Due to the volume of comments and questions, we are responding as fast as we can. RNAO’s Board of Directors and our entire staff want you to know: WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!

Thank you deeply to each and all of you for being there for our communities – everywhere and in all roles! Together, in solidarity, we are stronger and more resilient. These continue to be tough times for many colleagues – especially those working in the front lines in India, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the US, Russia, South Africa, Iran, and other places that are still hit hard by evil COVID-19!

Remember, during stressful and exhausting times, the only silver lining is -- coming together and working as one people – for the good of all!

Together, we must redouble our efforts to tackle COVID-19 with the best tools at hand: full, accurate and transparent information, calmness, determination and swift actions. 

Doris Grinspun, RN,MSN, PhD, LLD(hon), Dr(hc), FAAN, O.ONT
Chief Executive Officer, RNAO

 

PAST BLOG ITEMS:

21 August - Black August and an update on RNAO’s Anti-Black Nursing Task Force – go here.

21 August - Winter Surge Planning: How one Ontario Health Team is Preparing – go here.

14 August - Insights from Cuba: Primary care as the focus of COVID-19 prevention – go here.

7 August - School reopening: Ontario government can still do the right thing on class sizes – go here.

31 July - Preparing for the second wave of COVID-19: Discussion – go here.

31 July - Important announcement regarding the VIANurse program – go here.

31 July - Government must immediately mandate hiring to avert second tragedy in LTC – go here.

24 July - Preparing for the second wave of COVID-19: What is the plan? – go here.

17 July - RNAO launches new social media campaign #Maskathon – go here.

17 July - RNAO calls on government to reunite families in LTC homes in Ontario – go here.

10 July - Nurses’ mental health, leave of absence and return to work experiences – go here.

10 July - RNAO continues to pursue family reunification in LTC – go here.

10 July - Support Zimbabwean nurses arrested and fired for protesting deteriorating pay and working conditions during pandemic – go here.

3 July -   RNAO launches task force to tackle anti-Black racism within the nursing profession – go here.

3 July -   Rather than praise, let’s protect our nurses – go here.

3 July -   Nurses celebrated diversity during Pride month – go here.

26 June - Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee – go here.

26 June - Masks for all – the policy imperative in Canada – go here.

18 June - Annual General Meeting – an exhilarating week! – go here.

12 June - Petition on masks for Canada – go here.

12 June - LTC: RNAO releases list of 35 reports and recommendations dating back 20 years – go here.

6 June   - Statement – RNAO stands together with our Black sisters and brothers – go here.

3 June   - Adapting harm reduction during a pandemic – go here.

29 May - Foot care nurses – go here.

29 May - Update on pandemic pay; pandemic pay in consumption and treatment sites – go here.

28 May - RNAO Calls for Immediate Action in Response to the Canadian Armed Forces’ LTC report – go here.

26 May - Update on VIANurse – go here.

26 May - Ending homelessness: Will you join us to build a COVID-19 recovery for all? – go here.

24 May - Technology as a solution: Opportunities and pitfalls of COVID contact-tracing apps – go here.

21 May - Debunking PPE myths with Dr. Jeff Powis: Which masks should health care workers wear during COVID-19? – go here.

20 May - RNAO response to announcement of an independent commission into Ontario's long-term care system – go here.

19 May - With the pandemic curve flattening, VIANurse program will focus its effort on outbreaks – go here.

14 May - Nursing Week update – go here.

14 May - Pandemic puts health system to the test: Nurses have answers for shortfalls – go here.

14 May - Disappointment for not being included in pandemic pay – go here.

13 May - RNAO saddened by the loss RN Brian Beattie to COVID-19 – go here.

13 May - End racism and prejudice – go here.

12 May – Enhancing Community Care for Ontarians (ECCO 3.0) – go here

11 May - Nurses share their successes and challenges during National Nursing Week – go here.

10 May - A story of hope, ingenuity, support and genuine care for an LTC resident – go here.

7 May    - Counting the missing deaths: Tracking the toll of the coronavirus outbreak – go here.

5 May    - Life on the front lines of the pandemic: Profile of RNAO member NP Daria Gefrerer – go here.

5 May    - Addressing differential access to virtual care due to technology inequities – go here.

3 May    - Being person-and-family-centred during COVID-19 – go here.

1 May    - Migrant agricultural workers and the COVID-19 crisis – go here.

30 April - COVID-19 pandemic in provincial institutions and correctional centres – go here.

28 April - Supporting First Nation Communities during COVID-19 – go here.

27 April - Responses to COVID-19 for persons experiencing homelessness in Toronto: An update – go here.

25 April - Lessons learned through a COVID-19 nursing home outbreak – go here.

25 April - Letter from a retired RN to Premier Ford: The problems with LTC were evident long before COVID – go here.

23 April - Working with seniors in long-term care requires specialized knowledge – go here.

22 April - Shaking the stigma: We need a proactive COVID-19 response for mental health and addiction – go here.

21 April - We Require Expanded and Accessible COVID-19 Data in Ontario – go here.

20 April - Can Loss of Smell and Taste Help Screen for COVID-19? – go here.

18 April - COVID, Trump and the World Health Organization – go here.

16 April - A Home Based Model To Confront COVID-19 – The Case Of The Balearic Islands – go here.

15 April - COVID-19 and the Challenges in Homecare – go here.

14 April - Reprocessing Of N95 – An Update – go here.

14 April - A New COVID-19 Facility For Persons Experiencing Homelessness In Toronto – go here. 

13 April - Practical Tips for Safe Use of Masks – go here.

10 April - Ontario’s Tragedy in Long Term Care Homes and Retirement Homes – go here.

10 April - RNAO Action – Supporting Long-Term Care – go here.

10 April - Update For Nursing Students – NCLEX Exam – go here.

9 April - Celebrating Passover, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and the start of Ramadan during a pandemic – go here.

9 April - Guidance on use of N95 mask – go here.

7 April - Sentinel surveillance and on-site testing in the homeless service sector – go here.

7 April - Reprocessing of n95 – safe? – go here.

5 April - We must change the way we do testing and case definition – go here.

5 April - Ringing the alarm bells on critical care beds – go here.

4 April - COVID-19, stay at home and domestic violence – go here.

We have posted earlier ones in my blog here. Please go and take a look.

 

Information Resources

Public Health Ontario maintains an excellent resource site on materials on COVID-19. This is an essential resource for Ontario health providers. 

Ontario’s health provider website is updated regularly with useful resources here.

Ontario’s public website on the COVID-19 is there to inform the general public – encourage your family and friends to access this public website. The WHO has provided an excellent link for you to share with members of the public here.

Please promote the use of Ontario’s COVID-19 self-assessment tool: It also has a guide where to seek care, if necessary. Its use will provide the province with real-time data on the number and geography of users who are told to seek care, self-isolate or to monitor for symptoms. Data will inform Ontario's ongoing response to keep individuals and families safe.

Health Canada's website provides the best information capturing all of Canada. It contains an outbreak update, Canada's response to the virus, travel advice, symptoms and treatment, and resources for health professionals.

The World Health Organization plays a central role in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. See here and here.

You can find up-to-date global numbers in Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE.