Worldwide stats provided by worldometers put the global COVID-19 number of reported cases today at 24,363,342. (Deaths: 830,352 and Recovered: 16,895,616) I emphasize reported because there is a wide variance in testing and manner of reporting from country to country and place to place.
As of 6:00 a.m. ET on Thursday August 27, 2020:
Health Canada reported 126,417 confirmed cases of COVID-19, to date. 4,868 cases are active, there have been 9,094 deaths and 112,445 people have recovered.
The official Province of Ontario website is reporting 41,695 total confirmed cases and 2,802 total deaths. Currently, there are 43 people are in hospital with 15 of those in ICU. 37,863 cases have been resolved.
Quebec continues to have the highest reported cases in the country with 61,945.
The Region of Durham reported 1,878 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The site also reports no current outbreaks (Hospitals, LTCF's and Retirement Homes) with all 38 outbreaks having been "concluded." Clarington remains at 108 total cases. (4 are in isolation, 97 are resolved and 7 people have passed away. Hospitalized currently: "zero")
In international news,
France adds more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases in one day. France's prime minister said Wednesday that reopening schools is "one of the essential conditions" for a restart of the country's economy, which is hobbled like elsewhere by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite confirmed virus cases rising, Jean Castex insisted that France needs to return to work as well and avoid "falling into an economic and social crisis that would be much more dangerous than the health crisis." Speaking on France-Inter radio, and later at an annual forum of an association of business chiefs, Medef, Castex urged compatriots to wear masks more but insisted that rising coronavirus infections across the country are "nothing to panic about."
Weekly COVID-19 cases in England decline for the first time since July. Some 6,115 new people tested positive for COVID-19 in England in the week to August 19, down 8% on the week before and showing the first decrease since the start of July, figures from the government’s test and trace operation showed on Thursday. A higher total of 7,941 people were transferred to the contact tracing system in the week, in part due to an operational delay in the prior week.
Conflict and coronavirus spark a hunger crisis in Burkina Faso. The number of people in need of emergency food aid in Burkina Faso has tripled to more than 3.2 million – some 11,000 of whom are suffering from “catastrophe” levels of hunger – as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic hits a country already engulfed by violence. The latest data – which includes famine conditions in a part of the country for the first time in more than a decade – comes in a new food security report from the government and UN agencies. The report was sent to The New Humanitarian by the World Food Programme but is not yet available online. Emaciated children and malnourished mothers are streaming every day into poorly equipped local hospitals, where doctors and nurses who spoke to TNH on visits to northern, western, and southwestern parts of Burkina Faso said they are feeling overwhelmed and bracing for things to get worse. “There are people who have nothing to eat,” said Philomene Sawadogo-Ouedraogo, head of the paediatric ward of the main hospital in the town of Kongoussi in the Centre-North region. While there should be enough food to go around in the country – production increased in recent months by nearly 10 percent compared with a five-year average, according to the report – attacks by extremists and a patchwork of other armed groups have now uprooted one million people, cleaving farmers from their land and leaving crops rotting in fields and granaries.
In national news,
This will piss you off....Up to $22 billion in COVID aid may have gone to high-income Canadians: Fraser Institute study
'There's a whole lot of people, who don't need assistance or whose need is much less, who are not only getting assistance, but they're actually being made better off' Up to a quarter of the payments that went to Canadians during this pandemic could have gone to people in families with six-figure incomes, says a study from the Fraser Institute. The study estimates that as much as $22.3 billion may have gone to people who didn’t need it. During the height of the pandemic the government unveiled several programs designed to help Canadians faced with sharp drops in their incomes. Money went out to students, parents and seniors as well as people who suddenly found themselves out of work as stores, restaurants and other businesses were forced to close due to COVID-19. The government’s largest program was the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB.) Early on, the government said candidly that the focus was on getting the money out the door as quickly as possible. Jason Clemens, executive vice president of the Fraser Institute and a co-author of the report, said that might have been justifiable when the program first launched in April, but with two extensions having happened there is no reason new eligibility rules couldn’t have been put in place.
Why do some people barely get sick from COVID-19 and others seem to never get better? Canada’s long-haulers might hold some of the answers. Doctors don’t understand why some aren’t recovering, and as the first wave of people living with lingering impacts of the new virus, they could hold some of the keys for unlocking some of its mysteries. But many feel ignored by the medical establishment, uncounted in official case tallies, and falling through the cracks of care, instead turning to online communities to crowd-source their own recoveries. Demand has been growing around the world for special post-COVID centres, which have already been set up in New York City, and the U.K. In Canada, a major research study is tracking survivors and can assist in connecting them to help. There are some doctors trying to figure out what’s going on with some people. A massive multi-province study, starting in Ontario, hopes to recruit 2,000 COVID survivors and follow them over time, using questionnaires and blood tests to understand their range of experiences. It will examine antibodies, how the immune system responds, genetics, and blood clotting.
(Interested patients can contact the team at cancov@uhn.ca)
“There are huge variabilities and the problem is we currently cannot tell which ones are going to get really really sick and which ones may just have the flu kind of symptoms,” said Dr. Angela Cheung, an internal medicine specialist at University Health Network and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. “We don’t know the whole picture right now and that’s why we’re doing the study.” While there are some patients who don’t have symptoms and statistically most just have mild ones, “it’s not only a respiratory illness, the virus can effect other systems and some people have sort of prolonged, sort of residual type symptoms,” she added.
From the "Call me cynical, but" file, Ottawa announces $2-billion for provinces and territories to help with safe return to school. Trudeau announced the funding Wednesday morning. He says it’s on top of the $19 billion Ottawa already promised to provinces and territories to help them cope with the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau adds $112-million is also on the way to First Nations “to ensure a safe return to school on reserves.” He says his government “respect that education is a provincial jurisdiction” and they have made the funding flexible, so “provinces and ultimately schools can use it for what they need most.” Once again, justin rides in on his white horse.....with your money.
From the "Screwed over, yet again..." file, Canadian COVID-19 clinical trial scrapped after China wouldn't ship potential vaccine. Vaccine candidate not approved by Chinese customs to export to Canada, National Research Council says. A collaboration between a Chinese company and a Halifax research team aiming to carry out Canada's first clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine has been abandoned amid rising tensions between the two countries. The partnership between the National Research Council of Canada and CanSino Biologics was announced by the federal government in May. A team at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology at Dalhousie University was supposed to work with CanSino to run the first Canadian clinical trials for a possible COVID-19 vaccine. CanSino's vaccine, called Ad5-nCoV, was already being run through human trials in China and has shown promising results. In May, Health Canada gave the go-ahead for the Canadian trials to begin, and the hope was that clinical trials in Halifax could begin within weeks. But in late July, The Canadian Press reported that the Canadian-Chinese partnership was on the rocks, saying China had held up shipments the company was supposed to send to the Halifax researchers by the end of May.
Coronavirus: Alberta continues to struggle with public health messaging to young adults. More than 50 per cent of COVID-19 cases in Alberta from the past week are coming from youth and young adults, and questions are being raised about what is being done to better target this particular demographic. According to data from the province, 356 of the 666 new cases, or 53 per cent, reported from Aug. 18 to Aug. 24 fell between the ages of 10 and 39 years old. Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Aug. 10 that the province is looking at what can be done to reach different age groups and better understand what is standing in the way of their ability to follow public health guidance.
In Ontario,
Ontario outlines back to school plan. Parents will be required to screen their children for symptoms of COVID-19 everyday before sending them to school. The Ontario government has released its guidelines for school boards and educators in preparation for the return to class. All school staff will also need to do a self-assessment health check everyday before deciding to go to work. If a child becomes ill at school, the principal will determine whether to send the child home. If that decision is made then the child will be isolated with a staff ember wearing personal protective equipment and will have to be picked up at the school by a parent or guardian. Although there is no requirement for a student or staff presenting symptoms to have a COVID-19 test, they will not be allowed to return to school until they are symptom free for 24 hours. An outbreak will be declared at a school if there are 2 or more lab confirmed cases of COVID-19 and school boards will work with public health units to determine to manage the outbreak.
From the "I can do that" file, Nowhere to fly? Take a break from work anyway, experts advise. Researchers found that spending a combined total of at least two hours in nature a week can lead to better health in one study involving nearly 20,000 people, for example. Meanwhile, experts have highlighted the deleterious mental health impact of spending too much time on social media, exacerbated in 2020 by "doomscrolling" through social media feeds and reading an endless flow of bad news. Kamkar adds that society also needs to normalize prescribing time for rest. "Finding ‘me’ time ... practicing self-kindness, self-compassion as part of self-care is important," she said. "Setting meaningful activities, appreciating our sense of self, developing a healthy view of ourselves -- all those are our foundation to building our resiliency."
In local news,
10 a.m. bell for most Durham high school students. Bell times will also shift for elementary students, but only by about 10 minutes. Bell times are shifting to accommodate school bus transportation, which has to work around a 2.5 hour in-person school day for secondary students, as well as new rules that allow a maximum of two students per bus seat. A new report from Durham Student Transportation Services — which buses about 30,000 students from the Durham and Durham Catholic district school boards — says most high schools in those boards will start at 10 a.m. and end at 12:30 p.m. (There are a few exceptions.)
The Sheepdogs and Tim Hicks headline two-night drive-in concert series in Peterborough in September. Peterborough Memorial Centre series on September 18 and 19 also features openers Jim Cuddy Band and Jason McCoy. The Peterborough Memorial Centre (PMC) has announced a two-night drive-in concert series, featuring The SHeepdogs with the Jim Cuddy Band on Friday, September 18th, with Tim Hicks with Jason McCoy on Saturday, September 19th. Both concerts will begin at 7 p.m. “This is truly a very exciting opportunity for us to be able to offer the great people of this community such an incredible line up of talent during what has been such a difficult year for so many,” says PMC facility manager Jeremy Giles in a media release. “These concerts will be a fun, safe and responsible way for the people of Peterborough to get out and enjoy some great live music from the safety and comfort of their own vehicle, while still physically distancing from other concertgoers.”
Sports, sports, sports,
The Jays hammered the Bosox 9 -1 last night as ex-Blue Jay Kevin Pilar went 0-4 at the plate. I still miss Superman. Probable pitcher tonight at 6:37 is Ryu who is currently 2-1.
Player boycotts are happening in the NBA and MLB and nobody really knows what the outcome of this social crisis will be. The NHL response has been tepid, at best.
Musing,
I'm not sure how much longer I can listen to talk radio. The (entire) world, is fucked.
Did you know at one time, The Great Farini lived in Bowmanville? His name was William Hunt and while living in Bowmanville, he snuck into a circus that had come to town, and became infatuated with show business. He began developing his muscles and acrobatic talent in secret and became very proficient. He eventually decided to host his own circus in town. It was quite successful, complete with music and various circus entertainment. Since 1859, Niagara Falls has seen nine daredevils successfully make it across the tightrope from Niagara Falls, New York to Niagara Falls, Canada. One of them was The Great Farini. In 1860 he carried a washtub on his back while crossing. He even lowered a bucket to gather water while on the tightrope!
I still get excited when I see a Monarch Butterfly.
"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." (EPICTETUS)
On this day in history, Krakatoa explodes!
The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatoa (also called Krakatau), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia, on August 27, 1883. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein dies.
On August 27, 1967, Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead of an accidental drug overdose in his Sussex, England, home. The following day, the headline in the London Daily Mirror read “EPSTEIN (The Beatle-Making Prince of Pop) DIES AT 32.” Brian Epstein was, by all accounts, the man who truly got the Beatles off the ground, and in John Lennon’s estimation, it was difficult to see how they’d manage to go on without the man who had managed every aspect of the Beatles’ business affairs up until his unexpected death.
WTF is "Pots de creme?"
Today is - NATIONAL JUST BECAUSE DAY – NATIONAL POTS DE CREME DAY
Bank of Canada unclaimed balances portal
supportontariomade.ca
Here is how to clean your non-medical mask.
Clarington Tourism Businesses and Attractions Directory can be found here.
CERB abuse reporting https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/bscs/l3adz/internet/initial.do?target=login&lang=en&program=qa">can be done here.
To book a COVID-19 test in Durham Region, click here.
Lakeridge Health Mental Health Clinic 905-440-7534 or toll free at 1-833-392-7363 (Monday-Friday 9am-4pm)
Live coronavirus map of Canada: Tracking every case of COVID-19 in the country.
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