A COVID-19 outbreak at Seaforth Community Hospital has closed its inpatient unit to admissions until further notice, health-care officials have announced.
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A COVID-19 outbreak at Seaforth Community Hospital has closed its inpatient unit to admissions until further notice, health-care officials have announced.
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The Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance publicly reported the outbreak Saturday.
“Patients, family/caregivers and team members affected by the outbreak are in the process of being notified,” the hospital group said in a news release, adding that contact tracing and further tests are also underway.
With the exception of those in palliative care, visiting restrictions are in place. Families and caregivers will be made aware of opportunities for virtual connections, officials said.
Hospital outbreaks are declared when two or more COVID-19 cases that could have been acquired in the building are confirmed among patients or staff.
The outbreak in Seaforth was declared as the hospital’s emergency department was in the midst of a temporary reduction in service due to “sudden” human resource shortages. Seaforth’s emergency department resumed regular hours of operation Monday morning.
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According to Public Health Ontario data last updated on Jan. 21, there are two other active COVID-19 outbreaks in Huron and Perth counties, both in long-term care homes.
Two people in the region have died due to COVID-19 so far this year, public health figures show – one reported Jan. 10 and the other reported Jan. 15.
Exactly three years after declaring COVID-19 a public health emergency, the World Health Organization decided Monday not to lift that designation.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the international body, said “there is no doubt that we’re in a far better situation now” than a year ago, when the highly transmissible Omicron variant was at its peak. But Tedros warned that in the last eight weeks at least 170,000 people have died around the world in connection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. He called for at-risk groups to be fully vaccinated, an increase in testing and early use of antivirals, an expansion of lab networks, and a fight against “misinformation” about the pandemic.
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“We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths to the lowest possible level,” he said.
About 540 people in Ontario have died due to complications related to COVID-19 over the same time period, Public Health Ontario data show. As of Jan. 21, there were 250 active outbreaks in the province – 103 long-term care homes, 79 retirement homes, 37 hospitals, and 31 other congregate-living settings.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said no matter what the WHO decided, Canada would continue to track cases, serious illnesses and deaths, as well as roll out vaccination campaigns. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with the virus spiked noticeably over Christmas and in early January, Tam said, but all now appear to be trending down.
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“We mustn’t, I think, let go of the gains that we’ve had in the last several years,” she said. “I think whatever the decision is made by the director-general of WHO, I think we just need to keep going with what we’re doing now.”
Ontario is through the worst of the respiratory virus season, with the three major viral threats on the decline, though a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 may lead to a “smaller” spring wave, the province’s top doctor said Thursday.
Chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore “strongly” recommended people wear masks in indoor public settings in mid-November, as the flu, respiratory syncytial virus and COVID-19 were circulating and straining children’s hospital capacity.
Moore said at the time that a renewed mask mandate was on the table, but now with the province on the other side of a tough respiratory season after three years of a pandemic, that may be off for good.
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“I really can’t see us considering that,” he told the Canadian Press. “In no jurisdiction has there been a mandatory masking recommendation, nor has our expert panel recommended that to us. So we hope the highest-risk Ontarians will continue to take the layers of protection seriously.”
Moore said that includes staying at home when sick, practising good hand hygiene and “cough etiquette,” and the strong recommendation for indoor masking continues. As well, he recommends people stay up-to-date on COVID-19 booster shots, particularly people more susceptible to the virus.
The flu in Ontario peaked in early December, with around 568 patients in hospital, and now that number is 80, Moore said. RSV peaked at the same time, with about 350 people in hospital.
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“We’re now down to 190, so that number is slowly going down with RSV,” Moore said. “RSV typically doesn’t have that high peak that influenza does, and stays with us throughout the winter months, but its impact is decreasing significantly week by week.”
The COVID-19 situation has also been improving, Moore said, with 99 people in ICU, the lowest number since July.
However, previous pandemic years have seen spring waves of COVID-19, so Moore said he is closely monitoring the more transmissible XBB variant.
“This virus has tended to have 90- to 100-day cycles in its mutations, and each subsequent variant has been more infectious,” he said, “so we do anticipate having another, smaller wave.”
-With files from the Canadian Press
COVID-19: Outbreak declared at Seaforth Community Hospital; WHO emergency declaration enters year 3 - Stratford Beacon-Herald
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