The COVID-19 pandemic

[tomh009]

SATURDAY 2021-08-14

Waterloo Region reported 19 new cases for today (12.7% of the active cases) and zero fewer for yesterday for 26; 131 new cases for the week (+4 from yesterday and +18 from last week), averaging 12.4% of active cases. 145 active cases, -10 in the last seven days.

Next testing report on Tuesday.

Next vaccination report on Monday.

Ontario reported 578 new cases today with a seven-day average of 428 (+29), compared to 231 a week ago. 260 recoveries and two deaths translated to an increase of 316 active cases and a new total of 3,426. +1,368 active cases for the week and 26 deaths (two per day). 23,468 tests with a positivity rate of 2.46%. The positivity rate is averaging 2.14% for the past seven days, compared to 1.34% for the preceding seven. 82 patients in ICU (+0 today, +0 for the week) with COVID-19.

New case variants reported today (these are substantially delayed so they do not match the new case numbers):

• Alpha (B.1.1.7): 10
  
• Beta (B.1.351): 0
  
• Delta (B.1.617): 100 (88% of variants over the past 10 days)
  
• Gamma (P.1): 2
  

Cases/100K by region:

• 42 cases in Windsor-Essex: 10.8 per 100K
  
• 57 cases in Hamilton: 9.8 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Chatham-Kent: 8.5 per 100K
  
• 11 cases in Brant: 8.1 per 100K
  
• 64 cases in York: 5.8 per 100K
  
• 153 cases in Toronto: 5.2 per 100K
  
• 23 cases in Niagara: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Middlesex-London: 4.9 per 100K
  
• 67 cases in Peel: 4.8 per 100K
  
• 21 cases in Halton: 3.8 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Lambton: 3.8 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Durham: 3.1 per 100K
  
• 6 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 3.0 per 100K
  
• 8 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 2.9 per 100K
  
• 18 cases in Waterloo: 2.9 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 4 cases in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark: 2.4 per 100K
  
• 3 cases in Grey Bruce: 1.9 per 100K
  
• 10 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 1.9 per 100K
  
• 16 cases in Ottawa: 1.6 per 100K
  
• 1 cases in Huron Perth: 1.0 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Eastern Ontario: 1.0 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Kingston Frontenac: 1.0 per 100K
  

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 49.2
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 47.3
• Brant County Health Unit 25.8
• York Region Public Health 25.6
• Toronto Public Health 24.2
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 24.1
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 23.3
• Peel Public Health 21.9
• Halton Region Public Health 20.8
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 19.8

• TOTAL ONTARIO 20.1

[danbrotherston]

10-day averages for key regions in Ontario, plus the weekly trend as of 2021-08-14 (posting this every Saturday).

...

Waterloo region is still stable, but we have a +64% weekly trend at the provincial level!

Has there been any indication of provincial strategy recently? (I have been pretty much out of the loop for the past two weeks.) I see the vaccination of hospital workers and boosters for vulnerable populations, which make sense, but those seem like fiddling with the margins and I can't see them really reversing the trend we have been seeing for the past four weeks.

Provincial policy seems to be to hope and pray and hide. Like no kidding we didn't hear from them in weeks.

Just now they announced halting reopening and mandating vaccines for healthcare and long term care workers. Which is like..not enough and not even the minimum.

The Fed's have done more (vaccines mandatory for international and interprovincial travel--except by car, and vaccines for crown corp workers and federally regulated workers) and that's saying something.

[ac3r]

All the blame goes to the Conservatives. They have never had the slightest clue what they're doing before the pandemic and they don't have the slightest clue what they're doing during it. The only good thing to come out of all of this (apart from getting to demonstrably see that us Ontarians can be compassionate, resilient people) is that this is finally splitting the conservative voter base up. The CPC and OPC have shot themselves in the foot and pushed their most fringe supporters away to parties like the PPC. Hopefully, by the time September 20th and June 20th 2022 rolls around, neither the federal nor provincial Conservative parties will have the slightest chance and then maybe we can repair the damage we've all had to live through these last few years.

[tomh009]

SUNDAY 2021-08-15

Waterloo Region reported 21 new cases for today (14.5% of the active cases) and zero additional for yesterday for 19; 133 new cases for the week (+2 from yesterday and +12 from last week), averaging 12.7% of active cases. 144 active cases, -11 in the last seven days.

Next testing report on Tuesday.

Next vaccination report on Monday.

Ontario reported 511 new cases today with a seven-day average of 440 (+12), compared to 261 a week ago. 250 recoveries and zero deaths translated to an increase of 261 active cases and a new total of 3,687. +1,445 active cases for the week and nine deaths (one per day). 19,192 tests with a positivity rate of 2.66%. The positivity rate is averaging 2.12% for the past seven days, compared to 1.52% for the preceding seven. 89 patients in ICU (+7 today, +4 for the week) with COVID-19.

New case variants reported today (these are substantially delayed so they do not match the new case numbers):

• Alpha (B.1.1.7): 22
  
• Beta (B.1.351): 0
  
• Delta (B.1.617): 63 (88% of variants over the past 10 days)
  
• Gamma (P.1): 0
  

Cases/100K by region:

• 11 cases in Huron Perth: 11.2 per 100K
  
• 48 cases in Hamilton: 8.3 per 100K
  
• 27 cases in Windsor-Essex: 6.9 per 100K
  
• 64 cases in York: 5.8 per 100K
  
• 21 cases in Middlesex-London: 5.2 per 100K
  
• 7 cases in Brant: 5.1 per 100K
  
• 69 cases in Peel: 5.0 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Niagara: 4.5 per 100K
  
• 24 cases in Halton: 4.4 per 100K
  
• 116 cases in Toronto: 4.0 per 100K
  
• 24 cases in Waterloo: 3.9 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 5 cases in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark: 2.9 per 100K
  
• 3 cases in Chatham-Kent: 2.8 per 100K
  
• 17 cases in Durham: 2.6 per 100K
  
• 3 cases in Lambton: 2.3 per 100K
  
• 10 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 1.9 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 1.8 per 100K
  
• 17 cases in Ottawa: 1.7 per 100K
  
• 1 cases in Northwestern: 1.1 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 1.0 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Eastern Ontario: 1.0 per 100K
  

[jeffster]

Yesterday’s 7-Day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 48.7
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 48.3
• Brant County Health Unit 29.0
• York Region Public Health 26.2
• Toronto Public Health 24.4
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 23.8
• Peel Public Health 23.0
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 22.6
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 22.4
• Halton Region Public Health 22.0

—-snip—-

• Timiskaming Health Unit 0.0
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 0.0

• TOTAL ONTARIO 20.7

[tomh009]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal...-1.6140131

Requiring vaccination to board a plane or train is certainly one of the strongest levers the federal government has to boost vaccination rates. The article seems slightly ambiguous about requirements for employees of federally regulated sectors. Civil servants and crown corps are certainly going to require vaccination, but if it includes all federally regulated industries that's going to be a lot of people.

O'Toole has now said that he is opposed to mandatory vaccination for federal employees and in federally-regulated industries (and presumably for travel as well). He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

[ijmorlan]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal...-1.6140131

Requiring vaccination to board a plane or train is certainly one of the strongest levers the federal government has to boost vaccination rates. The article seems slightly ambiguous about requirements for employees of federally regulated sectors. Civil servants and crown corps are certainly going to require vaccination, but if it includes all federally regulated industries that's going to be a lot of people.

O'Toole has now said that he is opposed to mandatory vaccination for federal employees and in federally-regulated industries (and presumably for travel as well). He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

He was probably waiting for Trudeau’s announcement so that he could announce the opposite policy.

[panamaniac]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal...-1.6140131

Requiring vaccination to board a plane or train is certainly one of the strongest levers the federal government has to boost vaccination rates. The article seems slightly ambiguous about requirements for employees of federally regulated sectors. Civil servants and crown corps are certainly going to require vaccination, but if it includes all federally regulated industries that's going to be a lot of people.

O'Toole has now said that he is opposed to mandatory vaccination for federal employees and in federally-regulated industries (and presumably for travel as well). He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

I wonder what that would cost in terms of manpower and financial resources?  Is it even feasible?

[jeffster]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal...-1.6140131

Requiring vaccination to board a plane or train is certainly one of the strongest levers the federal government has to boost vaccination rates. The article seems slightly ambiguous about requirements for employees of federally regulated sectors. Civil servants and crown corps are certainly going to require vaccination, but if it includes all federally regulated industries that's going to be a lot of people.

O'Toole has now said that he is opposed to mandatory vaccination for federal employees and in federally-regulated industries (and presumably for travel as well). He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

I think O’Toole’s suggestion is good — who wants to have daily testing? Likely not many, so they’ll opt for a vaccine without being forced.

[ac3r]

He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

Man...the Conservatives are really bad at everything they propose and do, aren't they? How does daily rapid testing make more sense than having employees get two simple needles and then never have to worry about it again? These people are clowns.

[tomh009]

O'Toole has now said that he is opposed to mandatory vaccination for federal employees and in federally-regulated industries (and presumably for travel as well). He instead proposes daily rapid testing for all employees.

I think O’Toole’s suggestion is good — who wants to have daily testing? Likely not many, so they’ll opt for a vaccine without being forced.

Yes, it would be a strong incentive. But the government would still need to set up the infrastructure (and people!) for doing the testing and checking the test results at every work location. Considering the number of remote work locations for federal employees, is that even feasible to do?

[Coke6pk]

I think O’Toole’s suggestion is good — who wants to have daily testing? Likely not many, so they’ll opt for a vaccine without being forced.

Yes, it would be a strong incentive. But the government would still need to set up the infrastructure (and people!) for doing the testing and checking the test results at every work location. Considering the number of remote work locations for federal employees, is that even feasible to do?

Being an already vaccinated Fed, I was happy to hear the news of mandatory vaccinations.  I was afraid that the Union was going to fight it, but the other day PSAC came out in full support of having healthy workplaces, as long as those that are medically exempt would be accommodated (which makes sense).

O'Toole likely thinks that remote workers can just mail their daily tests (assuming the community has daily mail service) to a centralized location, and in 14 days they can get the results back.  What could go wrong?

Coke

[JoeKW]

U of W is trying to make it look like they're jumping on board with the mandatory vaccination requirements but they haven't changed their plan from last week that requires an attestation (not proof) or rapid antigen screening (where you don't have to provide the results to the university unless they request it).

Bare minimum...

[tomh009]

Yes, it would be a strong incentive. But the government would still need to set up the infrastructure (and people!) for doing the testing and checking the test results at every work location. Considering the number of remote work locations for federal employees, is that even feasible to do?

Being an already vaccinated Fed, I was happy to hear the news of mandatory vaccinations.  I was afraid that the Union was going to fight it, but the other day PSAC came out in full support of having healthy workplaces, as long as those that are medically exempt would be accommodated (which makes sense).

O'Toole likely thinks that remote workers can just mail their daily tests (assuming the community has daily mail service) to a centralized location, and in 14 days they can get the results back.  What could go wrong?

And at remote outposts (such as coast guard, fisheries and oceans, northern affairs, northern development, parks, RCMP etc) how would they even set up a testing collection capability?

Really, not very well thought through.