COVID-19

For the past two years, young athletes have dealt with the harsh realities of the COVID-19 pandemic canceling or pausing sports several times.

Once again sports in Ontario have been paused for at least 21 days due to the latest restrictions that came into effect on January 5, 2021.

Cash Lappage, a 13-year-old Dryden resident, who plays hockey, and football has found it very difficult to not play sports.

The Ontario government is changing its COVID-19 collection and reporting methods in an effort to better reflect the risk in individual communities.

Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has estimated that only one in five COVID-19 cases are being confirmed at the moment, due to the changes in Ontario’s PCR testing requirements.

PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, tests are now being reserved for high-risk individuals who are considered the most vulnerable to COVID-19, hospital patients with severe symptoms and those working in the highest-risk settings.

The Northwestern Health Unit says households should have a number of essential items on-hand, in the event that you have to self-isolate.

The NWHU says items to purchase include pain relief medications like acetaminophen and ibuprofen, frozen or canned fruit and vegetables, non-perishable food items, personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies.

Cochrane is reporting 473 active cases while Rocky View County is reporting 582 cases. 

The province is reporting 4,704 new cases in the past 24 hours with a positivity rate remaining around the 38 per cent mark. 

The total number of active cases in the province is 58,613.

Sadly, there were another eight deaths reported bringing the total in the province to 3,352.

Hospitalizations are continuing in an upward trend with 73 more admissions bringing the total to 708 and eight more patients are in ICU for a total of 80.

Staff in critical services such as schools will be able to use a rapid COVID-19 test if they are symptomatic, regardless of vaccination status.

Families Minister Rochelle Squires and Education Minister Cliff Cullen say rapid antigen tests will be made available for symptomatic workers in critical service sectors.

“Tests will be provided for all designated staff in critical service areas who are symptomatic and work directly with clients and vulnerable populations," Squires says in the Tuesday statement.

Sectors include:

Students will be hitting the books in person next week.

A spokesperson from the Premier’s office is confirming that there are no changes to the current plan to return to in-person learning on Monday.

Schools went remote this week for all students in Kindergarten to Grade 12 after an extended winter break.

The turn to remote learning came after calls from teaching organizations in the province, asking for time to implement more COVID-19 prevention measures.

The Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU) is transitioning into including more information on the hospital, and ICU capacities in the region when reporting COVID-19.

Due to the recent testing requirement changes by the Ontario government limiting who can get tested to those most vulnerable, daily cases counts are now being underestimated.

The recent testing changes by the province have prompted Dr. Kit Young Hoon, Medical Officer of Health for the NWHU to focus on the statistics of the virus.

Last week, Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau announced the federal government would be securing 140 million rapid antigen test kits to distribute to provinces and territories.

The substantial test kits will hopefully solve the severe shortage the country including Ontario is facing.

Kenora MP, Eric Melillo says it's positive that more rapid tests have been secured, but he hopes to see a lot more kits and hopes the federal government has a plan in place to prevent further shortages.

There are more than 400 people in the hospital due to COVID-19 as of Tuesday morning.

Hospitalization rates have jumped by 40, bringing the total number to 418 people in the hospital. Manitoba's COVID-19 dashboard shows 381 of those people have active cases.

Hospitalizations by health region include:

• 253 in Winnipeg
• 55 in Prairie Mountain
• 55 in Southern
• 32 in Interlake-Eastern
• 23 in Northern

There are 42 people in intensive care with all but one of those people having active cases.

Due to the rising demand for PCR tests, Alberta is changing the eligibility for those who will receive them.

The province says wait times for booking a PCR test are nearing four days and turnaround time for providing results to patients is approaching 48 hours.

To ensure that patient care decisions are supported by timely diagnostic information, PCR testing eligibility will now be focused on those who have clinical risk factors for severe outcomes and those who live and work in high-risk settings.