Worldwide stats provided by worldometers put the global COVID-19 number of reported cases today at 43,884,197. (Deaths: 1,166,240 and Recovered: 32,243,601)
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 9:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday October 27, 2020:
Health Canada reported 220,213 confirmed cases of COVID-19, to date. 25,934 cases are active, there have been 9,973 deaths and 184,306 people have recovered.
The official Province of Ontario website is reporting 71,224 total confirmed cases and 3,099 total deaths. 7,286 are active. Currently, there are 295 people are in hospital with 78 of those in ICU. 60,839 cases have been resolved. (Hospitalizations in Ontario are steadily rising and of note, the total capacity number for ICU beds is 350. ICU bed utilization is the number to watch, not the total cases.)
Quebec continues to have the highest reported cases in the country with 100,922. (8,947 are active) Quebec case numbers continue to rise at the highest rate in Canada.
The Region of Durham reported 2,881 confirmed cases of COVID-19. The site reports 3 current outbreaks (Hospitals, LTCF's and Retirement Homes) with 42 outbreaks having been "concluded." Clarington rose to 195 cases. (11 are in isolation, 175 are resolved and 7 people have passed away. Hospitalized in Clarington currently: "2") School and Child Care Center outbreaks sit at "7", with 3 having been concluded.
In international news,
(Eat your vitamins) More than 80 per cent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had vitamin D deficiency: study. More than 80 per cent of COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Spain had a vitamin D deficiency, according to a new study. Researchers at the University Hospital Marques de Valdecilla in Santander, Spain looked at the vitamin D levels of 216 patients admitted to hospital for coronavirus treatment between March 10 and March 31. For the study, the 216 hospitalized patients’ vitamin D levels were compared to those of a control group of 197 people of similar age and sex from a population-based cohort in the same geographical area.
Polish PM warns of 'massive' COVID risk from abortion rights protests. (Warsaw) Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on Tuesday for an end to mass protests over abortion rights, saying those attending were disregarding “massive risks” from the resurgent coronavirus pandemic. Five days of nationwide protests have followed a ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal last week that amounts to a near-total ban on abortion in the predominantly Catholic nation. Once the decision goes into effect, pregnancy termination will only be legal in Poland in the case of incest, rape or a threat to the mother’s health. The court said abortion due to foetal abnormalities, the only other case for legal termination in Poland until now, was unconstitutional. “These outbursts we are seeing in the streets should absolutely not be taking place. We will oppose any acts of aggression decisively,” Morawiecki said.
Belgium is on the brink of a coronavirus disaster as a top health official warned that the country could run out of intensive care beds in as little as two weeks. The country of 11.5 million people has reported on average more than 13,000 cases a day in the past week, according to the national public health institute Sciensano. The COVID-19 outbreak in Belgium is the second worst in Europe in terms of new cases per capita, after only the Czech Republic. Yves Van Laethem, Belgium's spokesperson for the fight against the coronavirus, warned that unless Belgians change their behavior, intensive care units will reach their capacity of 2,000 patients in 15 days. At a news conference Monday, Van Laethem said that 1,000 of the country's intensive beds are already being used, with total of 1,250 set to be occupied by the end of the week. Both hospital and intensive care admissions are doubling every eight days, he added. In an interview with state broadcaster RTBF on Monday, Van Laethem added that a decision would be made on whether to impose a second lockdown "before the end of the week," adding that if Belgium doesn't see "signs of a slowing down of hospital admissions", stricter measures may be necessary.
In national news,
(Don't do what Donny Don't does) An op-ed from the Toronto Sun, Politicians going bare-faced leaves them red-faced. Politicians set the rules but don’t always follow them. This weekend a federal Liberal cabinet minister and Ontario Conservative MPP were called out for failing to wear masks in public. Justin Trudeau’s health minister was essentially telling Canadians “Do as I say, not as Hajdu,” when she was photographed without a mask on over the weekend at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. A photo posted to Twitter on Sunday showed Liberal MP and health minister Patty Hajdu sitting in the Air Canada lounge and having a laugh with an unseen person while not wearing a mask. In Ontario, it was Sam Oosterhoff, the parliamentary assistant to the education minister, who was caught bare-faced in public. Oosterhoff posted photos on Facebook over the weekend with 42 people, none of them wearing masks. Quickly called out online, Oosterhoff deleted the photos and apologized. The MPP from Niagara said that there were fewer than 50 people at the event which took place in a banquet hall and that it followed all local rules and public health measures.
Steroids, inhalers and ventilators: What Quebec doctors are learning about COVID-19. New techniques and treatments are being used to treat COVID-19 patients, but much is still unknown. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic's first wave, Dr. Joseph Dahine and his colleagues could spend over an hour huddled around the bedside of a patient in the ICU in Laval, Que., brainstorming treatment options. There were no textbooks to tell them what to do, so they became medical detectives as Quebec faced a surge of cases, learning everything they could about the physiology and nuances of COVID-19 to save lives. Dahine, an intensive care specialist at Cité de la Santé hospital, said he worked gruelling, 12-hour days through the spring, discussing with his team on breaks. "We experimented a lot," he said. What was clear from the outset was that COVID-19 was no normal respiratory disease. Often, patients would come in with extremely low oxygen saturation levels.
(Contrary to what a Johns Hopkins University study reported a few months ago) Dog tests positive for COVID-19, first in Canada. Health officials have identified a dog in Ontario's Niagara region with COVID-19, making it the first confirmed canine case in Canada, The Toronto Star Reports. Researchers involved in the study say there is no need for pet owners to worry. The dog resides in a household of six, and four have tested positive for COVID-19. The canine showed no symptoms and had a "low viral load," the Star reports, suggesting dogs are unlikely to fall seriously ill or pass the virus on. In an interview with the Star, Scott Weese, a veterinary internal medicine specialist and director of the University of Guelph’s Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, and a member of the team that documented the Niagara case says self-isolating individuals should limit their pets' contact with others. “This pandemic is clearly driven almost exclusively by people,” said Weese told the publication. “Ultimately, we want to keep this purely a human disease because it’s easier to contain.”
In Ontario,
Toronto wants province to cap commission fees for food delivery services. Toronto’s mayor is supporting a motion that asks the provincial government to cap commission fees for food delivery service companies, adding that it’s “one piece of the puzzle” in keeping restaurants afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking with CP24 Monday evening, John Tory said that following much discussion about the impact of delivery service commission, he had hoped companies would have reduced rates for customers in COVID-19 hot spots. “You got to hope that corporations have the good sense to do something on their own without being forced to do it, but then you realize sometimes they're just not really listening and so you have to do it for them,” Tory said.
Ford not yet ready to place additional restrictions on Halton Region, says local opposition a 'unique situation'. The Ontario government is no longer planning an imminent announcement on whether to move Halton Region into a modified version of Stage 2 with Premier Doug Ford telling reporters that the lack of support among local politicians makes it a “unique situation.” Ford had said on Friday that officials were going to meet this past weekend to discuss the rising case counts in the parts of the GTA that remain in Stage 3 with a decision on whether to impose additional restrictions expected to be announced today. His office, however, confirmed to CP24 that no such announcement was coming.
In local news,
Durham, Halton not going back to Stage 2 just yet. Premier Doug Ford’s office will not announce Monday that Durham and Halton will be sent back to a modified Stage 2. Ford had commented Friday they would be deciding on the fate of the two regions over the weekend. Now the province isn’t ready to scale the two areas back, but will reportedly continue to look at the data. Durham and Halton are the only areas of the GTA that weren’t sent back to a modified Stage 2. Toronto and Peel started Stage 2 October 9 and York moved into modified Stage 2 October 19. Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter doesn’t believe the numbers in Durham are similar to the trends seen in Toronto, Peel and York when they were moved back and doesn’t believe the region is there yet.
'Low risk' respiratory outbreak in diagnostic imaging department at Oshawa hospital. Not COVID-19, but two staff in department have tested positive for it. (WTF??) Lakeridge Health is confirming a respiratory outbreak in the diagnostic imaging department at the Oshawa hospital — the outbreak is not COVID-19. However, the situation is made confusing by the fact that two staff in the department have tested positive for COVID-19. Lakeridge Health spokesperson Sharon Navarro stressed that their cases are unrelated to one another and do not appear to have been acquired in the hospital. “Working together with Durham Region Health Department, this situation has been determined to be low risk and the unit remains open,” Lakeridge Health says in an Oct. 27 statement about the respiratory outbreak. “Lakeridge Health continues to take all necessary steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 and all other respiratory illnesses, including universal masking at all sites, enhanced cleaning, hand hygiene and active screening at all hospital entrances.” Any confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in institutions such as hospitals are listed by the Durham health department on its COVID-19 data tracker.
Musing,
"Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody." (BENJAMIN FRANKLIN)
Are you giving out candy this Halloween?
Have you ever....soaped windows on Halloween?
Did you know....craft beer originated in America in 1981? Ken Grossman, Paul Camusi and Steve Harrison filled ice chests with pale ale samples and sold the first cases to a few bars, restaurants and stores in downtown Chico, California. Today Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the nation’s bestselling pale ale and second bestselling beer from an independent craft brewer.
On this day in history, in 1904, New York City subway opens.
At 2:35 on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city’s innovative new rapid transit system: the subway.
The Red Sox win first championship since 1918.
On October 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918, finally vanquishing the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” that had plagued them for 86 years. “This is for anyone who has ever rooted for the Red Sox,” the team’s GM told reporters after the game. “This is for all of Red Sox Nation, past and present.”
Today is - NATIONAL BLACK CAT DAY – NAVY DAY – NATIONAL AMERICAN BEER DAY
The Bank of Canada unclaimed balances portal can be found here.
supportontariomade.ca
Here is how to clean your non-medical mask.
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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