Post by deborah on Feb 19, 2021 19:36:42 GMT
Miami hit the nail on the head!
As Dr. Cohen stated "The question will be, of course, as does some other variant emerge that mean some other type of treatment and/or testing"?
The variant's are here in Canada, and we have a much lower population than the United States.
Quite scary what's happening up here in the great white north.
Recent News from Ontario
“There’s some evidence that it may also be more lethal,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. “If the B.1.1.7 variant behaves as it did in the United Kingdom, cases will start to grow here again in late February or early March; that is unless we can limit the spread through public health measures.”
In a release by the City, they confirmed that variants have now been identified in long-term care homes, hospitals, a shelter, and a meat packing plant.
“The extension of the regulation would allow public health officials to focus on the safe reopening of schools and monitoring the new variants in the City,” the statement read.
Variants of concern (VOC) in Ontario (as of Wednesday, Feb. 17):
B.1.1.7 variant (UK): 338 (+29)
B.1. 351 variant (South Africa): 6 (-3)
P1 variant (Brazil): 1 (+0)
De Villa says by the time the case counts are big enough to “shock us,” it will be too late. She also provided data on variants from around the globe, citing the importance and need of lockdown measures now, more than ever.
“In Germany today, the minister of health said the proportion of the B.1.1.7 variant there rose from just under 6 percent to more than 22 percent in two weeks and that the proportion of cases with the variant are doubling every week,” de Villa continued.
“Newfoundland and Labrador, which has seen a total of just over 700 cases throughout the entire pandemic, suddenly has almost 300 cases on its hands linked to the UK variant.”
Newfoundland and Labrador health officials are still struggling to push down a spike in COVID-19 cases which, at its height, saw as many as 100 new cases in a single day.
She says health officials now know that the UK variant began spreading last September but went unidentified.
“By mid-December, they skyrocketed to peak about 50,000 per day. That is what happens with exponential growth and exponential growth is what Toronto faces.”
This comes on the same day Peel’s top doctor, Lawrence Loh, recommended his public health unit also remain under current lockdown measures instead of moving to the province’s colour-coded framework.
“The UK variant is the primary variant of concern right now,” said Elliott on Wednesday.
“But we also have cases of the South African and a case or so of the Brazillian variant. So, we have to be very careful. Any area that may be otherwise in a Green or Yellow area, if they have breakouts of this nature, that’s something that Dr. [David] Williams and the public health measures table is going to really concentrate on.”
“… We’re watching those variants very, very carefully because they can take off and suddenly put an area into crisis,” Elliott added.
Science advisors to the provincial government have said the new variants are poised to take prevalence in Ontario and could lead to the third wave of infections without strict control measures in place.
Doctor Barbara Yaffe, associate medical officer of health for Ontario said people shouldn’t let their guards down as restrictions loosen in most regions this week.
CITY OF TORONTO|COVID-19|TORONTO COVID-19 link
CDC
mRNA vaccines can be developed in a laboratory using a DNA template and readily available materials. This means the process can be standardized and scaled up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods. In addition, DNA and RNA vaccines typically can be moved most rapidly into the clinic for initial testing. In the future, mRNA vaccine technology may allow for one vaccine to target multiple diseases
As Dr. Cohen stated "The question will be, of course, as does some other variant emerge that mean some other type of treatment and/or testing"?
The variant's are here in Canada, and we have a much lower population than the United States.
Quite scary what's happening up here in the great white north.
Recent News from Ontario
“There’s some evidence that it may also be more lethal,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Co-Chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. “If the B.1.1.7 variant behaves as it did in the United Kingdom, cases will start to grow here again in late February or early March; that is unless we can limit the spread through public health measures.”
In a release by the City, they confirmed that variants have now been identified in long-term care homes, hospitals, a shelter, and a meat packing plant.
“The extension of the regulation would allow public health officials to focus on the safe reopening of schools and monitoring the new variants in the City,” the statement read.
Variants of concern (VOC) in Ontario (as of Wednesday, Feb. 17):
B.1.1.7 variant (UK): 338 (+29)
B.1. 351 variant (South Africa): 6 (-3)
P1 variant (Brazil): 1 (+0)
De Villa says by the time the case counts are big enough to “shock us,” it will be too late. She also provided data on variants from around the globe, citing the importance and need of lockdown measures now, more than ever.
“In Germany today, the minister of health said the proportion of the B.1.1.7 variant there rose from just under 6 percent to more than 22 percent in two weeks and that the proportion of cases with the variant are doubling every week,” de Villa continued.
“Newfoundland and Labrador, which has seen a total of just over 700 cases throughout the entire pandemic, suddenly has almost 300 cases on its hands linked to the UK variant.”
Newfoundland and Labrador health officials are still struggling to push down a spike in COVID-19 cases which, at its height, saw as many as 100 new cases in a single day.
She says health officials now know that the UK variant began spreading last September but went unidentified.
“By mid-December, they skyrocketed to peak about 50,000 per day. That is what happens with exponential growth and exponential growth is what Toronto faces.”
This comes on the same day Peel’s top doctor, Lawrence Loh, recommended his public health unit also remain under current lockdown measures instead of moving to the province’s colour-coded framework.
“The UK variant is the primary variant of concern right now,” said Elliott on Wednesday.
“But we also have cases of the South African and a case or so of the Brazillian variant. So, we have to be very careful. Any area that may be otherwise in a Green or Yellow area, if they have breakouts of this nature, that’s something that Dr. [David] Williams and the public health measures table is going to really concentrate on.”
“… We’re watching those variants very, very carefully because they can take off and suddenly put an area into crisis,” Elliott added.
Science advisors to the provincial government have said the new variants are poised to take prevalence in Ontario and could lead to the third wave of infections without strict control measures in place.
Doctor Barbara Yaffe, associate medical officer of health for Ontario said people shouldn’t let their guards down as restrictions loosen in most regions this week.
CITY OF TORONTO|COVID-19|TORONTO COVID-19 link
CDC
mRNA vaccines can be developed in a laboratory using a DNA template and readily available materials. This means the process can be standardized and scaled up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods. In addition, DNA and RNA vaccines typically can be moved most rapidly into the clinic for initial testing. In the future, mRNA vaccine technology may allow for one vaccine to target multiple diseases