January 30, 2020 COVID-19 report

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Dear RNAO member,

Please see situational report #6 dated Jan. 30, 2020 that we just received from the Ministry of Health’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) related to the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

During the daily briefing with ministry and EOC officials, we learned that Ontario continues to have the same two positive cases. One person, a man in his early 50s remains in hospital  at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital in stable condition .  His wife is in self-isolation at home.

At this time, the only other positive Canadian case is in B.C. It involves a man who recently travelled back to that province from the city of Wuhan. 

Earlier today, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams and Dr. Barbara Jaffe, Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health—held a media conference with reporters for an update and to answer questions the media had.

Please note that Ontario’s health provider website went live on Jan. 29 and is being updated with various materials, including those we have been providing to you on a daily basis. We recommend that you visit this website often and we remind you that this website is for health providers, not for the public.

We were also informed that protocols for home care and long-term care will be released soon and those will be posted on the health providers website as well. In any event, RNAO will alert you as soon as those protocols become available. The ministry is also preparing revised protocols for acute care and for paramedics. 

Again, just a friendly reminder these materials are for your use only. Please do not share them with members of the general public (unless otherwise stated).

A public website exists where the general public can access the latest information about the coronavirus.

A final reminder, if you experience any challenges, we want to hear from you. To do so please contact Marion Zych at mzych@RNAO.ca. So far, we are extremely impressed with the open and transparent communication that we at RNAO are experiencing, as well as the overall organization at the federal and provincial levels. Kudos to government and civil servants, as well as public health officials that are working with tremendous extra effort; and my colleagues at RNAO, and all of you that are actively participating to make a challenging experience a less stressful one.

We are all in this together!

With warm regards!

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