RNAO remains intensely involved in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Ontario. We are participating in a collective effort to develop a comprehensive information resource on vaccines. RNAO organized a webinar with Dr. Dirk Huyer on vaccine distribution: Progress to date. Vaccinations should be ramped up starting with those at highest risk of severe disease or death – residents of long-term care homes –, as well as their essential care partners and staff in those homes. RNAO and three home care providers are calling on the government to get the vaccinations into the hands of community providers including nurses, physicians and pharmacists.

RNCareers.ca, RNAO’s official career site since 2005, is the largest in Ontario. The site hosts positions for nurse practitioners (NPs), registered nurses (RNs), registered practical nurses (RPNs), personal support workers (PSWs), and other health professionals in clinical and non-clinical roles across all health-care sectors.

RNAO reminds both employers and healthcare workers who have the ability to offer their availability at this urgent time of RNCareers, the largest employment website in Ontario for NPs, RNs, RPNs, PSWs and other health professionals. RNCareers is a 24x7 service.

As discussed last week, RNAO continues to urge faster and stronger action than reflected in the current colour-coded COVID-19 Response Framework. RNAO is calling for a province-wide lockdown, or, at a minimum, following the Ontario Hospital Association recommendation to robustly enforce a four-week lockdown (grey zone) in every public health unit with an infection rate of 40/100,000 population or higher.

RNAO and others remains gravely concerned by the late and insufficient efforts to control the second pandemic wave, which is once again overwhelming long term care (LTC) institutions, in particular nursing homes across the province, adding anguish to residents, staff and the families of both. This “too little, too late approach” continues to disadvantage populations compromised by their social conditions.

RNAO issued on December 8, in conjunction with the Ontario Hospital Association, Ontario Medical Association, Registered Practical Nurses Association of Ontario, and Respiratory Therapy Society of Ontario the following media statement:

Issues of fullness and accessibility of data are central to the understanding of any pandemic and the design of effective policy responses. We have asked Dr. Jennifer Kwan, a family physician in Burlington, Ontario, to expand on this key topic. What follows is her article. I encourage you to follow her on Twitter – @jkwan_md – her feed is an excellent source of useful data on COVID-19.

Yesterday, Friday, April 3 -- Ontario public health officials released modeling projections for the remainder of the month of April. The numbers are sobering, as the government is expecting 1,600 deaths by end of April and between 3,000 and 15,000 over the 18 to 24 months course of the pandemic. RNAO’s concern is that this planning still happens under a “best-case scenario"; from the outset, RNAO has been calling not to make that assumption.